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 2–6 weeks. Next application deadline: 8 January 2023.

For residencies in the period 1 February–30 June 2023, the application deadline is 8 January 2023. 

We will also announce a second open call for the period 7 August–17 December 2023, 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 room for a shorter period of time by agreement.

The residencies are open to professional artists. We favour projects that are experimental in their use of technology, or interrogate technology´s relationship to 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.

To apply, send an application to resources@bek.no, to include:

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

Details on the facilities: 

SOUND STUDIO 

BEK offers a modern soundproof and flexible sound studio for composing/mixing sound and simple recordings. The room is equipped with a 5.1 speaker setup and midfield monitor setup, and it is easy to adapt the speaker configuration to suit your project needs. For larger experiments with multi-channel sound, we recommend that you also book the project room and set up our eight Genelec 8040 or six Genelec 8020 with Subwoofer to the desired configuration. You can either use the sound studio system with software such as Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Max, Supercollider, Reaper, and Izotope suite – or bring your own laptop and connect. As an extension to the sound studio, we have various mobile field recording equipment and microphones.

VIDEO STUDIO 

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

Images: 1) Soldering during workshop with Ioana Vreme Moser. 2) Testing possible set-ups for Tom Teulon and Trude Bekk’s project “Sublime Synaesthesia”. 3) Sheila Feruzi from VUMA in the sound studio. 4) Developing materials and preparing “Sang fra et fremmed land”, Nora Adwan’s commissioned work for Astrup Fearnley Museet. 5) Åse Løvgren in the video studio. 6) Ivona Eterović working on her composition “uncertainty”. 7) Luke Drozd and Omar Johnsen in the project room.

Photos by Thor Brødreskift (1), Tom Teulon and Trude Bekk (2), BEK (3-7).