Open Call: Co-Creation Residency

Imagine a space that people dive into to experience a world almost no one has ever seen: the deep sea. The largest habitat on our planet, and one of the least known.

This is exactly the space we want to build, and we're looking for a creative voice from outside to help. For six weeks, you'll work with our team and the creative lab Tinkertank in Ludwigsburg on a prototype that will be presented publicly at the SILBERSALZ Science & Media Festival 2026. The starting point is IN TOO DEEP, our interactive deep-sea project at the intersection of video game, installation and immersive space.

Our approach: not to explain the deep sea, but to make it tangible.

Who we are

Interactive Media Foundation:

We are a non-profit organisation based in Berlin and Ludwigsburg. Since 2013, we have been developing innovative narrative formats at the intersection of art, education, media, technology and social change. You'll find more about us here.

Tinkertank Ludwigsburg:

Tinkertank is a creative lab, an experimental space, a workshop — and Germany's leading makerspace. The guiding principle here is "From deconstruction to construction": everyday objects, electronic waste and old toys are taken apart to create something entirely new. This is exactly where you'll be working for six weeks. You'll find more about Tinkertank here.

Who we're looking for

You design immersive spaces, interactive experiences or experimental formats, and you want to rethink the deep sea as a space of experience? You'd like to work on a prototype with a team of makers and scientists? You don't have to be able to realise everything yourself. What counts is your creative vision and your willingness to engage in a collaborative process.

Specifically, we're looking for artists, designers, performers, developers and other creatives from the visual arts, digital art, games & XR, performance, media and installation art, and related fields, who work with immersive, installation-based or interactive formats.

What you bring:

An interest in connecting ecological, social and poetic questions

Openness to collaborative work: with the creative-lab team and an accompanying scientist

A desire to translate technical know-how into artistic form, even if your own technical background is limited

Solid experience in immersive, installation-based or interactive formats

Confidence in the working languages German and English for collaboration with the team

The theme: the deep sea as a space of experience

The deep sea seems far away. But it isn't. It shapes the air we breathe, regulates the climate, and sustains the foundations of life far beyond the coasts. Its health is our health: what makes the ocean sick makes us sick too.

And yet we tend to picture the deep as an alien abyss, an empty darkness. In fact it is the opposite: soft corals, hydrothermal vents, cold seeps and ancient glass sponges. A place full of abundance, constancy and closeness, and perhaps even the place where life once began.

We approach the deep sea not only as a scientific subject, but as a space: for atmosphere, for sensory experience, for connection. We're interested in perspectives that translate this connection into poetic, playful, emotionally moving forms.

What we're creating

IN TOO DEEP (working title) invites young adults to experience the deep sea not as a distant realm, but as a world we are already connected to. Instead of observing it from the outside, players are invited to slow down, attune to the rhythm of the deep sea and move with it. This stillness and presence have an effect: they are meant to reduce stress, build resilience and bring back a sense of belonging to the living world. The goal: to move from "I've heard of the deep sea" to genuine care, responsibility and connection. With the ocean and with ourselves.

What takes shape in the festival space should be expansive, physical, experiential. With UTOPIKUM, our interactive future lab, we saw at the 2025 SILBERSALZ Festival what happens when people are addressed not as an audience but as part of an experience. IN TOO DEEP carries this insight forward: a format that doesn't lecture, but brings people into relationship. The festival theme for 2026 is Future of Health. Our common thread is Planetary Health: the health of the ocean as inseparably interwoven with human wellbeing. We're curious to see what you make of this approach.

How the Co-Creation Residency works

The residency is designed as a guided, collaborative creative process: from application through conception and prototyping to the presentation at the SILBERSALZ Festival. At its heart are five intensive weeks on site at Tinkertank in Ludwigsburg. We'd love for you to take an active part in the residency, develop the project further together with our team and present it at the SILBERSALZ Festival.

The key dates:

5 July: Application deadline

16 July: Review of submissions and invitation to an online interview

By 30 July: Online interviews with selected candidates

13 August: Final confirmation for the Co-Creation Residency

21 September: Start of the residency at Tinkertank Ludwigsburg

Five intensive weeks on site in Ludwigsburg:

CW 39: Kick-off and workshop induction

CW 40: Conception

CW 41: Prototyping, testing

CW 42: Building exhibits and testing

CW 43: Finalisation and preparation for installation

CW 44: SILBERSALZ Festival

What we provide

Tinkertank is no ordinary studio: a creative chaos of tools, materials, cables, paint and ideas. Here things get screwed together, soldered, printed, cut, programmed, tried out. Nothing has to be perfect; everything is allowed to fail and be rethought. You work in a space that invites experimentation. Together with the Tinkertank team, you develop your ideas further, test materials and technologies, and bring your prototype to life.

Specifically, you get:

EUR 6,000 fee (5 weeks of residency in Ludwigsburg, 1 week of festival in Halle)

Access to the Tinkertank creative lab in Ludwigsburg: co-creation and exchange with the team, plus tools and prototyping materials (wood, metal, 3D printing, textiles, electronics, media technology, plastic, paper, paint, etc.)

Travel costs for one-time arrival and departure to Ludwigsburg from elsewhere in the EU, as well as trips to Halle

Accommodation during the residency in Ludwigsburg and at the SILBERSALZ Festival in Halle

Presentation at the SILBERSALZ Festival 2026 in Halle

Full credit as the creative across all communication channels (website, festival, press, etc.)

Participation constitutes neither an employment relationship nor a commission. The residency is a project-based grant with collaborative elements and offers space for independent artistic development. The details are set out in a separate participation agreement.

How we handle rights of use

The Interactive Media Foundation is a non-profit organisation. What we develop together, we use for non-commercial purposes: education, outreach, public communication. The rights of use to whatever is created during the residency rest with the Interactive Media Foundation.

You keep full artistic credit. You may show, describe and present the result as part of your own work naming the collaboration with Tinkertank and the Interactive Media Foundation.

The Interactive Media Foundation leads the overall project in terms of content, organisation and legal matters. That is the framework we operate in as a non-profit organisation and within which we carry the deep-sea project forward. The details are set out in a cooperation agreement that you'll receive to review before any commitment. IN TOO DEEP is designed for the long term and will continue to develop beyond the residency. Your contribution is a chapter of its own in this process.

How to apply

We look forward to your application by 5 July 2026 at career@interactivemedia-foundation.com.

Send us, collected in a single PDF:

A short introduction — who you are, what drives you, which media you work with. Max. 400 words.

A short conceptual sketch — how you would approach the deep sea as a space of experience. Not a finished concept, more a direction, a question, an image, a feeling. Max. 500 words.

References — two to three of your own works that show how you work (links or files).

There is no entitlement to participation. The selection is made by the Interactive Media Foundation at its own discretion.