AWARDS
THEME
Oneiric (of dreams)
An Open Call for Works at the Intersection of Mind, Machine, and Myth
For Carl Jung, dreams were the “gateway” to the unconscious—a nightly theater where Archetypes (The Self, The Shadow, The Persona, The Anima/Animus) emerge to balance, warn, and guide the waking self. These universal figures, drawn from the depths of the collective psyche, have shaped human mythology, art, and behavior for millennia.
Today, we inhabit a new kind of dreamscape: the digital realm. Our screens, networks, feeds, and algorithms have become a collective canvas where ancient desires, anxieties, and myths are continuously projected. This evolving digital ecosystem functions much like a living, borderless organism—non-linear, symbolic, and deeply revealing of our collective psyche.
The 4th edition of the FutureTense Award invites artists to explore the intersection of Jungian archetypes and our modern, hyper-connected existence. We are looking for works that navigate the relationship between the organic and the machine, the threshold where the human subconscious meets cybernetic reality to shape our contemporary existence.
We invite artists to engage with the theme through the following exploratory threads as a starting point for the submission:
Thread: Cybernetic Unconscious
Investigate how the collective psyche interfaces with cybernetics. How do feedback loops, data streams, and automated systems act as a mirror to our shared subconscious? Envision the digital infrastructure not as cold hardware, but as a living, breathing extension of human cognition—a machine that dreams alongside us.
Thread: Organic Digital
Examine the blurring boundary between physical reality and digital dreamscapes. Treat the global network as a borderless organism—an entity that grows, mutates, and reacts. How does the virtual realm reshape human perception, nature, and organic life?
Thread: Kantian Threshold
Engage with the “Kant Machine”—the philosophical interface between raw sensory data and human perception. How do our cognitive structures shape the reality we experience online? Expose the underlying architecture of perception itself, questioning whether the Dream is a window to the soul, a product of neural wiring, or simply a glitch in the system.
Thread: Archetypal Dreamscape
Reflect on the non-linear, surreal nature of the digital dream. In a world without physical borders, how do archetypes evolve? Capture the fluid migration of symbols, myths, and identities across networks, where the internal psyche meets the external data stream. How does the collective psyche express itself when physical geography no longer constrains the imagination?
Thread: Fragmented Self
In an age of avatars, AI, and multiple digital identities, how do we locate the Human Being? Interrogate the dissolving boundaries between the individual and the collective, the internal psyche and the external virtual environment. How do our virtual identities impact our psychological safety and sense of self?
An Open Call for Works at the Intersection of Mind, Machine, and Myth
For Carl Jung, dreams were the “gateway” to the unconscious—a nightly theater where Archetypes (The Self, The Shadow, The Persona, The Anima/Animus) emerge to balance, warn, and guide the waking self. These universal figures, drawn from the depths of the collective psyche, have shaped human mythology, art, and behavior for millennia.
Today, we inhabit a new kind of dreamscape: the digital realm. Our screens, networks, feeds, and algorithms have become a collective canvas where ancient desires, anxieties, and myths are continuously projected. This evolving digital ecosystem functions much like a living, borderless organism—non-linear, symbolic, and deeply revealing of our collective psyche.
The 4th edition of the FutureTense Award invites artists to explore the intersection of Jungian archetypes and our modern, hyper-connected existence. We are looking for works that navigate the relationship between the organic and the machine, the threshold where the human subconscious meets cybernetic reality to shape our contemporary existence.
We invite artists to engage with the theme through the following exploratory threads as a starting point for the submission:
Thread: Cybernetic Unconscious
Investigate how the collective psyche interfaces with cybernetics. How do feedback loops, data streams, and automated systems act as a mirror to our shared subconscious? Envision the digital infrastructure not as cold hardware, but as a living, breathing extension of human cognition—a machine that dreams alongside us.
Thread: Organic Digital
Examine the blurring boundary between physical reality and digital dreamscapes. Treat the global network as a borderless organism—an entity that grows, mutates, and reacts. How does the virtual realm reshape human perception, nature, and organic life?
Thread: Kantian Threshold
Engage with the “Kant Machine”—the philosophical interface between raw sensory data and human perception. How do our cognitive structures shape the reality we experience online? Expose the underlying architecture of perception itself, questioning whether the Dream is a window to the soul, a product of neural wiring, or simply a glitch in the system.
Thread: Archetypal Dreamscape
Reflect on the non-linear, surreal nature of the digital dream. In a world without physical borders, how do archetypes evolve? Capture the fluid migration of symbols, myths, and identities across networks, where the internal psyche meets the external data stream. How does the collective psyche express itself when physical geography no longer constrains the imagination?
Thread: Fragmented Self
In an age of avatars, AI, and multiple digital identities, how do we locate the Human Being? Interrogate the dissolving boundaries between the individual and the collective, the internal psyche and the external virtual environment. How do our virtual identities impact our psychological safety and sense of self?