Camera Interactiva is a talent development programme in which students from the Academia and the Arts as well young creative professionals bring forth creative interactive visual projects that are inspired by and linked to the city of Utrecht, within the topic of Citizenship. In this way the programme aims to promote young talent and foster social responsibility of the academics, artists and young creative professionals. Camera Interactiva also strives to support and foster the links between the academic, the civic and the cultural life of the city, stressing the need for collaboration between those domains. Being built on the idea that art is a form of research practice and knowledge is a source of creativity, this programme encourages interdisciplinary, innovative and creative forms of inquiry into socially relevant topics. Camera Interactiva is initiated by the Centre for the Humanities (Utrecht University) and implemented together with partners from the University (Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities; IOS Institutions for open societies; Institute for Cultural Inquiry ICON) as well as non-academic partners in the city of Utrecht (Utrecht University of the Arts – HKU, Dutch Film Festival – NFF). The programme is co-authored and will be driven by the Centre for the Humanities’ Artist-in-Residence Janina Pigaht. This project is implemented with the support of K.F. Hein Fonds.

The idea

The idea of the project is to organise a competition in which the students from the academia and the arts would be asked to develop a knowledge-based creative interactive story on a socially relevant issue in the field of ‘Citizenship’, linked to the city of Utrecht. The work will be organised in the teams of two participants over the total period of 10 months, each team consisting of a student from the University and a student from the Arts (or a young professional from creative industry). The end-result of the competition would be production of 3 creative interactive stories for Utrecht (in the form of film, interactive media, etc.) that will be presented during a public event in the city.

The project consists of three phases. Firstly, a kick-off during the Nederlands Film Festival on 28 September 2015, followed by an intensive training week and two months for research and development of the interactive story project. The training programme will provide a mix of academic and practical training from the perspectives of Media Studies and digital art, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies and Migration Studies, Immersive Storytelling, Design and Impact. Secondly, the interactive projects will be pitched to an audience and a jury compiled of 4 professionals from film, university, Municipality of Utrecht and business industry – the goal of this phase is to short-list 3 teams who will receive seed money for the full development of their project. Finally, the short-listed teams will develop their projects that will be screened during a public event as part of UU Lustrum celebrations and receive awards: 1st place – 1500 EUR Young Creative Talent Award; two runners-up – 500 EUR per team and an additional prize of 500 EUR for the ‘public’s favourite’. The winning stories will further serve as starting-points for discussion on citizenship-related topics via 3 Creativity Labs, organised after the premiere: events for broad audiences with the aim to look for new and alternative solutions for pressing socio-political questions.

Citizenship as a focal point

The proposed theme of this year’s Camera Interactiva competition is derived from one of the Centre for the Humanities core themes: The cultural roots of Citizenship. Beyond and beneath the formal legal frames of citizenship, what are the new forms of social and cultural participation that have become necessary in a globally linked and technologically mediated world? To what an extent do these forms of participation count as acts of citizenship? How do communities come together in new social spaces (online and off)? How is information, cultural memory and knowledge passed on through these communities? What are the new forms of knowledge, art, cultural sensibility and citizenship that are required in order to meet the challenges of our time?

Participants will be asked to critically interrogate these questions by choosing an issue of their interest and inquiring into how this issue plays out in the city of Utrecht. Their findings should form the basis of their creative interactive visual story.

Sponsored by:

With special thanks to:

Avans Hogeschool Breda

Religion, Secularism and Political Belonging – an initiative by Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI), supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Read more here.