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 on 5 January. Answers by 15 January.
This open call applies to residencies in the period 3 February–29 June 2025.
We will later announce an open call for the Autumn 2025 residencies, with an application deadline on 8 June 2025.

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 who are not enrolled in a full time study program (with the exception of Ph.D. candidates). 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, we try our best to provide advice and help for your project specific needs. Residents get 24/7 access to BEK premises. Residents at BEK are invited (but not required) to present their work during their stay at BEK – as a work-in-progress or a finished result.

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 upon request.

The application must include:

• A filled out google form, which you can find linked here. This is automatically submitted to us when you press “Submit” on the form page.
• The following attachments sent to us as PDF to resources@bek.no with subject “Open Call: Spring 2025 [+name of applicant]”:

– CV of maximum 3 pages
– Portfolio of previous works, maximum 10 works

NB: video and audio material should be linked from within the portfolio, preferably as short 2-3 min excerpts or please specify the parts you would like us to focus on.

ACCESSIBILITY

BEK is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible. BEK is situated on the 9th floor, with access through a small three person elevator, or a large industrial elevator and a staircase. There are 17 steps between the 8th floor elevator and the 9th floor. Our space has all gender toilet facilities, but not an universal, accessible toilet. Service dogs are welcome. We also provide the option of a quiet room.
Please send us an email at bek@bek.no if you would like to know anything more, have any questions and we’ll do our best to facilitate your needs.

DETAILS ON THE FACILITIES:

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, DaVinci Resolve Studio 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, DJI Ronin gimbal, Canon Mark III and Sony A1 camera systems.

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 SSL BiG SiX Analog mixer with USB interface, in addition to this a RME Digiface combined 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, WaveLab Pro, Max/MSP, Reaktor, Traktor, Supercollider, Reaper, Izotope suite and Ina GRM´s GRM TOOLS – 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.

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 SPACE

We have one large project space (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.

WOOD WORKSHOP 

Studio residents can get access to a wood workshop, which is a part of the artists studios cs55 Kunstnerverksteder.  It is equipped with a  large range of machines for wood, as well as hoods for spray painting etc. The shared workshop is 45 m2, located in the same building, a few floors below BEK, and has access to a large communal lift at the back of the building. Please get in touch with resources@bek.no to additionally apply for access.

KITCHEN

The kitchen is the heart of BEK, it is where we cook, eat, get to know one another and catch up on our projects. Every so often, we will cook and share lunch or dinner together. Aside from these moments, BEK expects the residents to come with their own food. You can find a variety of supermarkets within less than 10 mins walking distance. The kitchen has a fridge, freezer, oven, microwave, dishwasher, coffee machine and table to use at your disposal. 

CARE POLICY

BEK follows a no-tolerance approach to racism, harassment and discrimination. Any prejudice on ageism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia, ableism, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender, gender presentation, language ability, technical capabilities, asylum status or religious affiliation does not belong at BEK.

Images: 1) Gudmundur Arnalds and Peder Niilas Tårnesvik in BEK’s project space. Photo: Lea Meyer. 2) Rui Liu work-in-progress-presentation in BEK’s project space. Foto: BEK. 3) Eli Mai Huang Nesse in the video studio. Photo: BEK 4) Tze Yeung Ho in the sound studio. Photo: BEK. 5) Bergsonist in the sound studio. Photo: BEK.