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MediaFutures selected seven projects from the 'Startups for Citizens' and 'Startup meets Artist' tracks to join the five ‘Artists for Media’ projects to continue on the MediaFutures programme, unlocking further funding and support.

At the start of April, we shared the 19 projects that joined MediaFutures. The MediaFutures programme has three tracks: ‘Artists for Media’ an artist residency, ‘Startups for Citizens’, a startup accelerator, and ‘Startup meets Artist’, a unique programme that supports artists and startups to work together on one project.

The projects on the 'Startups for Citizens' and 'Startup meets Artist' tracks had one month and up to €5,000 to refine their idea. At the end of April, they then had to pitch their idea to a panel of judges from the MediaFutures consortium to win a place on the next stage of the programme.

We’re excited to announce the following projects that will progress to the next phase: the BUILD stage.

Startups for Citizens

Each project will receive up to €50,000, plus five more months of support to take their ideas to the next level.

• DEEP: startup XR Impact is creating an immersive VR experience, leveraging behavioural science and a data feminist framework, to assess and contexualize Covid-19 data
• Closing the Gap - the Gokind venture: powered by the EU’s Open Banking framework the startup Gokind is improving citizens’ access to information on companies’ sustainability and equality efforts
• People Supported Intelligence: SURU Together Ltd. is developing a community-focused platform, using data about coronavirus, to encourage conversations among diverse groups and meaningful discussions in small groups, to address community-level issues

Startup meets Artist

For each project, the startup will receive up to €65,000 and the artist up to €30,000, plus five more months of support to take their ideas to the next level.

• How to read a Library: Studio Remco van Bladel, a multidisciplinary design studio, is collaborating with artist Mariana Darvas Lanari to develop digital tools and artworks that help people to access and share the knowledge contained in library collections
• HYPERViz: Space and software startup ScanWorld is collaborating with interdisciplinary team from Studio De Wilde to engage the general public with how satellite imagery can assist society, from environmental management, to the way pandemics affect society
• JECT-SENSE: AI, a digital tool for newsrooms, is collaborating with media artist Antoni Petrov Rayzhekov to develop novel and unconventional ways for journalists and a general audience to engage with news coverage
• PONTE: Partners and The Cynefin Centre are collaborating with visual artist Annika Varjonen to combine technology platforms, narrative data and art to tackle division and radicalisation in communities, as well as developing a plug-in to social media that points users to content that differs from what they usually see

“I was really impressed by the creativity and high quality of the 'Startups for Citizens' and 'Startup meets Artist' projects. It was a really tough jury duty. Now I am excited to see how the teams are going to develop in the next phase.” - Nico Lumma, Managing Partner next media accelerator

The five artists selected to join the artist residency track ‘Artists for Media’, who did not participate in the pitch event, will also continue on the programme:

• Critical Climate Machine: visual artist Gaëtan Robillard is developing a digital sculpture and sound installation that quantifies and reveals the mechanisms of misinformation on global warming
• Evil Magic Mirror: Obvious Collective, a group of artists who work with artificial intelligence, is creating a mirror where whoever stands in front of it communicates fake content about well-known conspiracy theories
• Social Sandwich: Artistic studio Fast Familiar is developing a social artwork based on an app that encourages people to encounter the unfamiliar and practice the arts of cooperation and critical thinking
• Soft Evidence: conceptual artists Dejha Ti and Ania Catherine are creating a series of slow visual scenes that never happened - films manipulated by machines trained to lie
• 730 hours of violence: Domestic Data Streamers, a mix of designers, social scientists, engineers and creative technologists, are combining the power of storytelling with data and arts for a participatory project exploring misinformation and violence

You can read summaries for each project here. We’ll continue to update you on their progress throughout the programme.

The MediaFutures project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 951962.

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