Baltan Laboratories

Baltan is an interdisciplinary platform for future thinking, based in Eindhoven. By bridging the gaps between disciplines, they evoke new ideas, insights, and narratives for our future society. This program is part of Baltans research theme Homo Socialis that revolves around social cohesion, community and (in)equality. It focusses on the different roles of people in society and how they affect each other. Occupy Baltan Social Design Residency 2021 Baltan Laboratories and the Occupants program offer a 4-month residency on sensible social design projects with Eindhoven’s local communities. They are looking for projects that focus on a collaboration with the local community in Eindhoven. Applications should focus on specific needs, or urgent topics for the local community. Social Design practices often involve a mix of different professions, interests, and backgrounds. Creatives enter unknown contexts where they meet and get to interact with communities, that all have their own cultural background and personal story. Within this residency the initiators want to shed extra light on the development of a fair and respectful process for all involved parties. This means besides working in the field they will keep testing out the sensibility of the process and collect the results to contribute for possible application in the social design sector. You are invited to occupy and use Baltan as an instrument for change on a personal and societal level. Occupying also means being immersed in one’s work or a topic that occupies not only our minds but even our lifestyle. We are constantly the occupier and the occupied, consciously and unconsciously. It is about seeing potential for hacking this residency as well as Baltans network, knowledge, status, and attention. With this mentality Baltan is now looking for 3 individuals/collectives to occupy the lab for a period of 4 months. Is it you we are looking for? Baltan is looking for people or collectives working with an art or design driven approach, incorporating other disciplines from different sciences and technology. You should be interested in actively questioning institutions and established working dynamics during your occupation. Baltan does not expect you to have a rooted practice in the field as we are especially looking for starters disregarding age or background. People living and working in Eindhoven/ Noord-Brabant are especially encouraged to apply. • presence and availability from the beginning September 2021 till the end of December 2021 • at least 2 days per week dedicated for the project and available for meetings especially on Tuesdays • an autonomous and proactive mindset • interest to work with people, communities and institutions (focused on Eindhoven region)