CATS+ Spring 2025 Residency Open Call
| Name | CATS+ Spring 2025 Residency Open Call |
| Application Opens | Jan 16, 2026 |
| Deadline | Feb 19, 2025 |
| Type | Residency · Open Call · Educational |
| Compensation | Paid (Stipend) |
Residency Details
CATS+ (Collaborative Art + Technology Situation) is a collaborative, local residency program at The Museum of Human Achievement for artists + tech wizards that is grounded in hands-on experimentation, critical thought, and community-building.
Cohorts participate in 10 weekly gatherings to learn and share on a broad range of resident-driven topics, build troubleshooting and collaboration skills, co-create projects, and share their processes in a final showcase at MoHA.
We offer residents:
- A $1,300 honorarium (to use however on whatever)
- Facilitated weekly sessions with a cohort of 5 residents plus visiting artists
- Access to mentor support and peer connections from our creative network
- Access to MoHA equipment and workspaces, including 24/7 access to MoHA’s IRL Tech Studio.
- A public platform to share your work at MoHA
We ask that residents:
- Make full use of the time and resources for the creation, exploration, research, and development of collaborative, creative projects.
- Be open to learning from each other, sharing, and growing together.
- Work with process-sharing in mind. Lead a demo and contribute to 1 or more CATS+ Wiki articles to share techniques, processes, or ideas related to a project you're working on.
- Contribute to the final showcase
If you have questions, please read our FAQs or reach out to Rachel Stuckey, Director of Digital Arts at rachel@themuseumofhumanachievement.com
Timeline
Feb 5 - Info Session
Feb 16 - Application deadline at 11:59pm
Feb 26 - Notification date
March 19 - May 29 - Residency dates
May 17 - Final showcase (alt date May 24)
About CATS+
The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+) is a residency and community program that encourages thoughtful, critical, creative engagement with technology. The CATS+ Residency Program groups cohorts of artists and tech wizards to learn together, make new projects, and share their process. We host collaborations, artist-led workshops, hangouts, public showcases, and a wiki to remove the mystery from tech and make magic together.
Read about past CATS+ cohorts on our CATS+ page.
Eligibility
- Must live in the Austin area and be at least 18 years of age.
- Not for full-time students or previous CATS+ residents.
- Expected time investment is 5-10 hours per week.
- Applicants of all skill levels and fields are welcome. We encourage applications from individuals who have experienced barriers to and are seeking access to media and tech tools, knowledge, and community.
Application
Tell us about you, what you're interested in learning and sharing, include some links or a PDF of work samples, and an optional resume or CV. Don't sweat it! We prefer brief, honest, and you over something fancy, academic, and perfect.
FAQs
How many residents are selected? Five residents per session. There is additional space for drop-in participants and mentors.
How often does CATS+ happen? Twice per year. The spring session is open-ended, and the winter session often has a more narrow focus on indie games or Live AV Production.
Do I need to pitch a project idea?
Nope! It’s helpful to have some directions you’re interested in pursuing, but due to the collaborative and exploratory nature of the residency it works best to be open to new ideas. This is a process oriented residency, so we’re most interested in hearing about what you’d like to try out, explore, or learn more about.
Does participating as a drop-in or mentor, or in other MoHA programs, disqualify me from being a full CATS+ resident in the future?
Absolutely not! We recommend it as a way to start getting involved and building community.
What are the weekly Computer Club sessions like?
The first few meetings are for getting to know each other and playing around with small collaborative projects. The majority of sessions are for resident and guest led demos, collaborating on ideas, and troubleshooting in-progress projects. The final weeks are for preparing, holding, and wrapping up the final showcase. Sessions are held in person in MoHA's IRL Studio. We use MoHA's Discord server as our primary communication platform.
Is there an option to participate virtually?
The magic of CATS+ happens through in-person connection and hands-on participation. We may offer occasional virtual or hybrid workshops, but the majority of residency activities happen at MoHA.
How do the projects and collaborations work?
Collaborations can look like duo or small-group projects, large explorations everyone contributes to, solo projects with support from other residents, or something else. Past residents have explored numerous small projects, iterated on one larger project, or anything in between.
Is there a big bang event at the end?
We aim for a medium bang! The focus of the residency is on process. The final showcase is designed to give residents a deadline to work towards, the public a chance to see what residents have been working on, and grow the media art community in Austin. We encourage residents to continue developing their projects for future exhibitions or events in Austin, elsewhere, or back at MoHA.
Who is this for?
We especially like to host folks who haven't had an opportunity like this before, are stuck in a rut and want time to experiment and play, or are looking to make meaningful connections in media arts.
Applicants of all skill levels and fields are welcome. We encourage applications from individuals who have experienced barriers to and are seeking access to media art and tech tools, knowledge, and community.
In the past we've hosted drag performers, costume designers, activists, poets, video artists, musicians, video game developers, web designers, sculptors, painters, diy electronics tinkerers, community organizers, coders, and more.
Who isn’t this for?
If you are looking for a traditional course or professional development program, top of the line equipment, or solitary time to work on a specific project you have in mind - this is not that kind of opportunity.
While we teach troubleshooting and media arts software/hardware that may be new to residents, we do not teach basic computer literacy. If you are a new computer user, we recommend checking out the classes at Austin Free Net.
Is it air conditioned?
The primary residency meeting space is air conditioned, though the majority of our space is not. If you haven’t visited MoHA before, we encourage you to attend the Info Session or drop by an event! You can read more about the space on the MoHA FAQ Page.
Is there additional financial support available?
An additional support stipend is available to residents for whom the cost of something like transportation, ability to take 1 or 2 shifts off of work, extra childcare, or other would be prohibitive to participating fully in the residency. Requesting a support stipend does not impact your application. The fund is split across any accepted residents who requested it.
Ethical Considerations
While we understand that resident projects are creative in nature, we still ask that Residents honor digital ethics and take responsibility to avoid causing social or environmental harm. MoHA does not endorse projects that involve NFTs, cryptocurrency, or microtransactions. We ask that you consider the broader impact of your project, especially if it can be accessed out of context. All projects are required to prioritize data privacy and user security.
Other Ways to Participate
You can become a drop-in participant or a mentor. Let us know you’re interested by signing up on our Wizard Registry.
We will share information about open CATS+ demos, workshops, or events.
We are also always looking for mentors in a variety of skill areas for this and other of our digital arts programs. We reach out to mentors that fit the interest areas of our current residents, but also love having folks around who enjoy troubleshooting in general.
