AEGIS Residencies

Asia-Europe Generalists in Sojourn (AEGIS) is a trans-local residency programme that focuses on encouraging collaborations between creative practitioners and cultural organisations from Asia and Europe, who address global cultural issues (such as adapting to climate change, loss of biodiversity, energy security, etc.) from a transdisciplinary perspective. The emergence of an open and diverse trans-local culture requires meaningful contacts and collaborations between creative practitioners across the globe. We particularly focus on supporting young generalists (people able to connect disciplines, such as art and science, ecology and technology) working on creating a holistic and resilient global culture.

The collaborative process of researching and creating a cultural work together with people from different regions and disciplines exposes our overlapping and complementary world-views. Asians and Europeans share a respect for deeply-rooted cultural traditions, while being at the forefront of technological and social innovations. These shared values can provide a common ground, from which we can explore our similarities and differences. This process is valuable for revealing both strengths and weaknesses of ingrained beliefs and habits, making all parties better equipped to address today’s global challenges. The primary outcome of the residencies are transdisciplinary experiments, such as design probes, documentation of performances, creative prototypes and interactive demonstrators. The results will be presented at FoAM’s research gatherings and workshops.