Concept NULL Newsletter #56
👋 Welcome
Well hello there friend!
Summer is still in full swing and we are bang in the middle of the Sommerloch. But there is lots of amazing things coming up so we hope you are getting out there, creating, meeting or just being. We support you in all those!
If you want to support this project, please share this newsletter! And if you want to submit something, email us at conceptnullofficial@gmail.com
🎪 Events
UNFOLDING
Organiser/s: Limerick School of Art and Design
Location: Limerick
Date: 02-09-2025 → 10-09-2025
Unfolding is an exhibition featuring seven artists from the MFA/MA in Fine Art programme at Limerick School of Art and Design—TUS. It will take place at the Large Sculpture Studio, Clare St. Campus, from September 2nd to September 10th, 2025. The artists’ reception event will be held on September 9th at 5:30 PM.
Holdings - Clara McSweeney & Mel Galley
Organiser/s: Dublin Fringe Festival
Location: Your Place - By Post
Date: 05-09-2025 → 14-09-2025
Sit back, relax, this is a show that comes to you. Want to buy a house in the future? As security blurs into speculation and the future feels increasingly uncertain, this remote performance explores what it really means to own a home. Unfolding where you live - via a mysterious package, a phone call, and a cryptic website - this intimate encounter brings the deeply personal debate around housing into your own home. Created in response to housing and data research as part of the Data Stories project, at Maynooth University, the artwork is critically tied to the current discussions happening around place and planning that unfold in conference rooms, in political debates, and in our living rooms. Interrogating the notions of housing as an investment and how data is created and used to shape planning (and ultimately places), the work offers a route into these discussions that is less trodden.
Sky/Memory - Glasshouse Music, Jenn Ní Mhordha (Gweynn) & Soria Reilly
Organiser/s: Dublin Fringe Festival
Location: Dublin Castle - Chapel Royal
Date: 05-09-2025 → 06-09-2025
Stretched apart, drawn across expanse. Swelling through shards of light. Hurled against matter. Sinking. Evaporating. Remembered, remembering. A live music performance and sonic meditation on memory and the Irish sky. Beneath immersive, cascading visuals, a blend of chamber ensemble, voice, text, electronics, and string textures conjures somatic memories and submerged histories. Rooted in research by artist Jenn Ní Mhordha, and created with Maeve Kelly and Soria Reilly, this evocative concert invites audiences into a ritual of sound and sky - where memory drifts, lingers, and transforms. Tickets from €14 for showings at 20:30 on the 5th and 6th of Sept and more info in the link below.
The Lighthouse, the Radio, the AIS with Cliona Harmey
Organiser/s: Dublin Port
Location: The Substation - Dublin Port Centre
Date: 16-08-2025 → 16-08-2025
Clíona Harmey’s talk, “The Lighthouse, the Radio, the AIS,” (16 August 2025) examines maritime communication systems—from lighthouses and signal lamps to Automatic Identification Systems—and their role in shaping maritime spatial narratives. The talk situates Harmey’s practice at the intersection of public art, technical history and data-informed storytelling about marine infrastructures.
TouchDesigner meetup / VJ tools
Organiser/s: Musichackspace
Location: online
Date: 31-08-2025
Join us for a TouchDesigner meetup on VJ tools with Bileam Tschepe on Thursday, August 31st at 4 PM UK time. This meetup will focus on exploring the capabilities of TouchDesigner for creating visual effects for live performances and events. You will hear from Bileam Tschepe and guests who will share their experiences and insights into creating dynamic visuals using TouchDesigner. This meetup is open to anyone interested in learning more about TouchDesigner and VJ tools. This event is free and hosted on our Discord channel, and available to watch on YouTube.
Articles 📖
Basic Income for Artists survey
The Basic Income for Artists has been helping over 2000 artists make, create and survive in these difficult times. Now their is an open survey for the public to weigh in on the matter. If you feel like this scheme should be supported more, make sure you have your voice heard by filling out the survey. You could also go the extra mile and email your local TD through this lovable campaign.
British Council Research Insight – Why Technology Needs Artists
Artists across 20 countries contribute 40 global perspectives arguing that cultural creativity is essential to progressive innovation. This publication shows how artistic practice enriches tech—from diversifying AI datasets to shaping resilient, human-centered systems. It presents evidence that artists, cultural organisations, and creative industries are foundational to socially grounded technological futures.
📯 Open Calls
ONSITE SF
Deadline: 31-08-2025
Organiser/s: Po:era collective
Location: Berlin
ONSITE SF (Po:era collective) stages a four-week site-specific residency culminating in a festival (6–9 November) across three Berlin institutions: museum, cinema and theatre. The programme explores speculative storytelling and place-responsive strategies with a cohort of multidisciplinary artists, combining peer exchange, mentoring and institutional resource access for public presentations with institutions.
Pollen — Video Rituals
Deadline: 30-09-2025
Organiser/s: Experimental Cinema
Location: Brooklyn
Pollen: Video Rituals (Experimental Cinema, curator Benja Thompson) focuses on short experimental moving-image works (approx. 2–9 minutes) that intersect with music, movement and performative contexts. Selected videos are presented alongside live dance or sound performances; the programme foregrounds embodied, community-rooted practices and diverse, queer-leaning artistic approaches and interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities.
Sonica Open Call 2026
Deadline: 25-08-2025
Organiser/s: Sonica
Location: Glasgow
Sonica is an 11-day biennial festival in Glasgow, dedicated to world-class visual sonic arts. The award-winning festival will present cutting edge work by international artists alongside emerging or exceptional UK and Irish talent across the city from Thurs 24th Sep – Sun 4th October 2026. This opportunity is open to artists based in the UK and Ireland, working in: 🎶 Sonic installations (especially for outdoor or site-specific spaces*) 🎥 Audio-visual performances 💻 Real-time visuals for performance More info in the link below!
Artist-Initiated Projects 2026
Deadline: 11-09-2025
Organiser/s: Pallas Projects/Studios
Location: Dublin
Pallas Projects/Studios marks its thirty-year programme with Artist-Initiated Projects (2026), a series of three-week solo, duo or group exhibitions. Eligibility focuses on early- to mid-career visual artists based in Ireland. Exhibitions receive gallery support, documentation, and direct funding (approx. €1,000 solo; €2,000 group) plus modest outreach funding and collaborative experimentation.
Regional Cultural Centre: Community Exhibition
Deadline: 05-09-2025
Organiser/s: Regional Cultural Centre
Location: Letterkenny
RCC’s Community Foyer Gallery will host a community exhibition (Jan–Feb 2026) showcasing work by non-professional artists, community groups, schools and creative organisations. The programme emphasises local participation, professional installation and gallery promotion. Curatorial support and optional launch or guided tours are part of the exhibition programme and local cultural development.
MBZ LAB // Sonic Collaboration in Unconventional Spaces
Deadline: 01-09-2025
Organiser/s: MBZ LAB
Location: Zagreb
Music Biennale Zagreb (MBZ) invites individual artists and artistic duos from South East and Central Europe working in sound and music to join MBZ LAB, a ‘project incubator’ experiment. MBZ LAB reimagines how festivals commission and produce new works, particularly collaborative, sound-based projects designed for unconventional spaces. We are seeking bold, imaginative, and process-driven artists who want to activate public spaces or unusual sites and reimagine the audience experience. We welcome applications from composer-performers, sound and installation artists, improvisers, new-media artists, instrument makers, as well as visual, multimedia, and/or performance artists whose work engages with sound and music in expanded or non-traditional ways. Applicants should be in the early-to-mid-career stage, with a developed body of work and some public presentation history, but are not yet regularly commissioned by major institutions or festivals (approximate age range: 25-35 years old). An ongoing collaborative practice is essential. While priority is given to those based within approximately 500 km of Zagreb, we also welcome applications from artists with strong contextual ties to the region (e.g. origin, language, or past collaborations).
🏠 Residencies
Regional Cultural Centre Sound Studio Residencies
Deadline: 29-08-2025
Organiser/s: Regional Cultural Centre
Location: Letterkenny
RCC Sound Studio Residencies (2026) centre on exploratory sound practice in a studio equipped with Moog One, Arturia PolyBrute and a grand piano. The residencies support electronic musicians, composers and sound designers with flexible, non-public studio access (minimum five days). Artist fees range €500–€1,000; travel and accommodation are not covered.
ALTERLIFE Residency
Deadline: 18-08-2025
Organiser/s: Sonic Acts
Location: Vilnius
ALTERLIFE (Rupert and Sonic Acts) is a two-part research and production residency spanning Vilnius and Amsterdam across 2026. The programme supports interdisciplinary practice addressing climate and ecological imaginaries with residencies, workspace, a €3,800 stipend, travel support and up to €7,000 production funding, culminating also in public presentations and exhibition opportunities.
Rupert x Sonic Acts Residency 2026-27
Deadline: 18-08-2025
Organiser/s: Sonic Acts
Location: Vilnius / Amsterdam
Rupert (Vilnius) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam) are pleased to announce the open call for the second edition of ALTERLIFE – a joint production and research residency that invites interdisciplinary artists and collectives to develop bold, process-driven work in response to the escalating climate emergency and the conditions it exposes. The name of this combined residency and production programme is adapted from feminist scholar M Murphy’s concept of ‘alterlife’ – a term that captures how life, human and non-human, has been chemically and structurally altered by centuries of colonial and capitalist systems. This year, the curatorial teams of Rupert and Sonic Acts welcome proposals that go beyond highlighting the environmental impact of the climate emergency, and instead interrogate the cultural, political and historical forces shaping our collective future. As Murphy says, ‘embodiment does not provide a respite or escape from history, from infrastructures, from relations of power.’ More info in the link below.
Medialab-Matadero - Situated Research residency
Deadline: 17-09-2025
Organiser/s: Medialab-Matadero
Location: Madrid
Open call for the Situated Research residency 25-26 Medialab Matadero presents the fourth edition of the annual program of Situated Research residencies seeking 3 research projects to be developed starting in November 2025 through November 2026. Medialab Matadero's mission is to promote transdisciplinary, collaborative, and open research. Our public organization fosters the development of projects that may have either national or international reach and that will consolidate Medialab as a creative research center focused on the present and, possibly, the future of our technologically mediated society. The Situated Research residency program is looking for proposals that explore emergent territories, combining conceptual development with creative practice while aligning with the most significant trends in research in art, design, science, technology and society. Medialab Matadero is committed to cultural innovation and critical thought and welcomes projects that are too exceptional to fit into the tight contours of academic research. More info in the link below.
Velocity and Techno-Information
Deadline: 15-08-2025
Organiser/s: Haba gallery
Location: Barcelona
In an era driven by the rapid exchange of information and technological advancements, how do artists navigate the concept of velocity—speed, acceleration, and immediacy? This theme invites artists to reflect on the influence of digital culture, technological evolution, and the overwhelming pace of contemporary life on art and society. From the ephemeral nature of data to the physical and emotional impact of hyperconnectivity, Velocity: Techno-Information encourages participants to investigate, reinterpret, and visualize the layered effects of speed and technology on the human experience. Details in the link below.
💰 Funding
Immersive Arts Funding
Deadline: 29-09-2025
Organiser/s: Immersive Arts UK
Location: UK
Immersive Arts is a funding and support programme for UK-based artists, designed to help them develop their art by using immersive technologies. Artists at all levels of experience are invited to apply, to explore, experiment or expand how they work with this exciting field of practice. You don’t have to be tech-savvy (though you can be) to apply. All you need is a curious mind and a creative practice. Essentially, it’s about breaking down barriers, making what can be an exclusive field of practice, much more accessible to all. They will support over 200 UK-based artists through three strands: Explore £5,000 Experiment £20,000 Expand £50,000. More on these strands in the link below.
That’s it for now! The newsletter gets sent out 1st and 15th of every month and we post open calls and events as they come in on our Instagram so be sure to follow us there.
Again, thank you for all of your support as we continue to grow our project with the help of a great community and, as we always say, we would love to hear your thoughts, projects, events or other open opportunities so drop us an email.
Chat soon, Concept NULL
[conceptnullofficial@gmail.com]