Our Winter Residencies have always been about giving artists space to explore early-stage ideas involving creative technology. Over the years, we've supported work that has imagined new worlds, challenged assumptions, and pushed the boundaries of what's possible when art and technology intersect. But as we've learned more about our community and reflected on our own practices, we've realised that one approach doesn't serve everyone equally well.

This year, we're experimenting with something new: splitting our Winter Residencies into two distinct tracks. A focused track that runs intensively over 2-3 months, and a flexible track that unfolds more gradually across a full year.

The traditional residency model—intensive, time-bound, with clear deadlines—works brilliantly for some artists and some projects. But we've increasingly heard from our community that this approach can exclude people who need to work differently. Parents and carers, people managing health conditions, those juggling multiple commitments, or those whose creative practice benefits from a slower, more reflective pace.

We've also noticed that some of the most interesting work has emerged not from the pressure cooker of intensive residencies, but from the quieter, more sustained explorations that happen when artists have permission to work at depth over longer periods.

Two tracks

Our focused track will continue with what has made our previous residencies successful. Artists will be embedded intensively in the creative community of the Pervasive Media Studio, with regular support and mentoring from our team and input from our community. This track is ideal for artists who thrive under focused pressure, who want to dedicate concentrated time to a specific exploration, or whose personal circumstances allow for this kind of intensive engagement.

The focused track maintains the energy and momentum that can push work to the next level—those crucial weeks when an idea suddenly crystallises or a technical challenge gets cracked through sustained attention.

Our flexible track acknowledges that creative work doesn't always conform to neat timelines. Some ideas need time to germinate. Some artists need to balance their creative work with caring responsibilities, health management, or other commitments that make intensive residencies impossible.

Artists on the flexible track will have access to the same community, support, and resources, but spread across a full year. They might spend one day a month in the studio, or cluster their time around school holidays, or work around fluctuating energy levels. Our hope is that the structure adapts to their needs, rather than requiring them to adapt to ours.

This track also creates space for the kind of reflective, iterative work that can lead to profound insights. Projects that need time to germinate, to respond to changing contexts, or to build genuine relationships with communities.

An experiment

This isn't our first experiment with our residency processes. In 2022, we introduced random selection for our residencies, reducing the upfront work required from applicants and recentring our selection process around the benefit to artists. That experiment taught us valuable lessons about the barriers we inadvertently create and the assumptions we make about how artistic development works.

The two-track approach builds on those learnings. We're not just trying to be more inclusive in who we select, but in how we structure the opportunities we offer.

Artists applying for our Winter Residencies this year will be able to choose which track suits their project and their circumstances. We'll be looking for projects that benefit from the qualities of each track, rather than trying to force every project into the same mould.

Both tracks will maintain the same high standards and ambitious goals. Both will provide access to our community and expertise, and both will have the same financial contribution and time expectation. The difference is in the rhythm, not the rigour, or the resources.

We're excited about what we might learn from this experiment. How do the projects differ between tracks? What new kinds of work become possible? What unexpected challenges arise? We hope our experience will be useful for other organisations thinking about how to make their programmes more genuinely accessible.

At heart, this experiment is about recognising that there are many valid ways of working creatively. By offering two different tracks, we're not just trying to accommodate different circumstances—we're trying to honour different creative processes. We believe this will lead to richer, more diverse work, and a more inclusive creative technology community.

We’d like to thank everyone in our community whose feedback and perspectives have led us to developing this new approach.

If you're interested in applying for either track of our Winter Residencies, please fill out the brief expression of interest form by Wed 1 October.