OPEN CALL: SWARM

Science Gallery Melbourne invites proposals from all disciplines to to delve into the science and art behind what it means to be part of a pack.

Have we become a plague overpopulating the world? Are we at risk of becoming culturally homogenous and less individual? Or are we becoming a superorganism capable of superior collective-intelligence with the ambition to spread beyond the realms of the Earth? 

There are more of us now than ever before – 7.8 billion people across the entire globe, with most of us now living highly urbanized lives in an ever-growing network of cities. We are also increasingly connected through a technological frenzy of social media and digital interfaces, allowing us to share our lives to hordes of followers, to crowdsource ideas, digitise workforces, and be part of global political movements. 

We are not alone in our collective social behavior. From swarms of social insects, murmurations of birds, to molecular movements, swarming behavior underlies nearly everything. We are also seeing swarm algorithms driving our future lives, in which we will see swarms of drones and nanorobots helping (or hindering) the very essence of what it means to be human. 

We’re on the hunt for mass inspiration from our global disciplinary community of friends to contribute proposals for our second 2021 exhibition SWARM (Aug-Oct 2021). Art/science proposals can be a new or existing artwork, performance, workshop, digital intervention, research project, or other activity.

Find more information and how to apply at opencall.sciencegallery.com/SWARM