Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

If you are working on an art project involving sound, moving image or electronics, you are welcome to apply for a studio residency at BEK lasting for 2–6 weeks. The application deadline is 7 January 2024.

This open call applies to residencies in the period 1 February-30 June 2024. 

We will later announce a second open call for the period 7 August–17 December 2024, with an application deadline 11 June 2023.

You can apply for a residency in our sound studio, video studio and/or electronics lab. If you need to explore something that requires a bit of space during your residency, you are welcome to use our project space for a shorter period of time by agreement.

BEK studio residency is open to professional artists. We favour projects that are experimental in their use of technology, or examine the relationship between technology, art and society. We offer our facilities and equipment, and expect artists to work independently. However, studio residents are also able to book advice sessions with our in-house experts to help with specific project needs. 

Please note that we offer our production facilities only, and do not cover travel, accommodation or project costs. BEK can provide the artist with a letter of intent for funding applications.

Send your application in Norwegian or English to resources@bek.no, subject: ”Open Call: Spring 2024” with 1 pdf containing:

– short project description (maximum 300 words)
– CV
– portfolio of previous works
– preferred studio: sound studio and/or video studio and/or electronics lab
– preferred dates

Accessibility

BEK’s space unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. Please send us an email at bek@bek.no if you’re using a wheelchair, and we’ll do our best to facilitate your needs. Our space has all gender toilet facilities. Service dogs are welcome. We also provide the option of a quiet room.

Details on the facilities:

SOUND STUDIO 

BEK offers a flexible sound studio for composing, mixing and recording. The room is equipped with a pair of Genelec 8050 monitors and a sub, an A&H Analog mixer, monitor controller and a RME Digiface with a Ferrofish 16A ADDA interface. In the room it is easy to adapt the speaker configuration to suit your project needs like quadraphonic or 5.1. For larger experiments with multi-channel sound, we recommend that you also book the project room and set up our nine Genelecs 8040 or our four NNNN Comium 30 with a Devor 23 Subwoofer to the desired configuration. You can either use the sound studio system with software such as Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Max/MSP, Reaktor, Supercollider, Reaper, and the Izotope suite – or bring your own laptop or music gear and connect. As an extension to the sound studio, we have various mobile field recording equipment and microphones, including multichannel field recorder and ambisonics microphones.

VIDEO STUDIO 

Our video studio is optimal for working with video and animation projects. The studio is equipped with two Apple 5K screens, stereo monitors and the possibility for 5.1 and a Mac Studio 2022 and editing software such as Adobe Creative Cloud suite, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve and audio editing in Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Max/MSP and Reaper. You can also easily work on your own laptop by connecting the speakers and the screens. In addition we have light stands, DJI Ronin gimbal, Canon Mark III and Sony A1 camera systems.

ELECTRONICS LAB

In the electronics lab, you can work on fabricating and modifying electronics. We have soldering stations with adjustable temperature, magnifying glass, oscilloscope, Dremel drills and accessories, drill press and much more. We have a stock of components, potmeters, servos, sensors, breadboards, rPI’s and Arduinos.

PROJECT ROOM

We have one large project room (71,6 m2) that can easily be converted into two smaller ones (42,2 m2 + 29,4 m2) with a partition. The project room has floor space and plenty of daylight, and a flat screen and projector are installed.

LIBRARY

We have an up-to-date library of publications and periodicals on contemporary art, sound art, electronics, machine learning, and more. You can use it for your research in connection to the residency.

Photos: 1) Mark IJzerman & Sébastien Robert in the sound studio, photo Mark IJzerman; 2) Marcel del Castillo in the video studio, photo Marcel del Castillo; 3) Emily Adomah in the sound studio, photo BEK; 4) Al Skua in the electronics lab, photo BEK; 5) Sugano Matsusaki & Jonas Beile in the sound studio, photo Sugano Matsusaki; 6) Mark IJzerman & Sébastien Robert in the sound studio, photo Mark IJzerman; 7) Miri Levi organising the BEK library, photo BEK