OPEN CALL FOR PROJECTS LAB 4 WEIRD FUTURES

For two weeks in November 2025, around 25 people will participate in a collaborative work process based on the 5 prototypes selected in this call, under the mentorship of writer and researcher Alex Quicho, artist and filmmaker Solveig Qu Suess, artist and experimental designer Joel Blanco and Medialab curator Bani Brusadin. 

The Collaborative Prototyping Lab will take place at Medialab Matadero in Madrid from 12 to 27 November 2025, culminating in the OpenLAB festival from 27 to 29 November. We will cover travel and accommodation costs for those selected from outside Madrid during this period. 

For conditions and application requirements, please check the full terms of the call. 

Submit your project before June 15 by filling out the registration form.

> Who is it for? 

With this call we are looking for original and specific proposals that will allow us to explore the themes of the call from a wide range of perspectives. 

We will welcome applications from the fields of contemporary art and design research, at both early and advanced stages of their careers. 

We are also interested in proposals related to activism, writing, visual cultures and new visualities, performance, and with backgrounds as diverse as architecture, engineering, biology, economics, political science, and many more. 

In general, we are looking for experts (or future experts) on any of the themes of the LAB 4 Weird Futures programme who are interested in having an impact on the technological aspects of contemporary society and are willing to collaboratively test and expand specific proposals. 

> What’s a prototype? 

A prototype is not a finished project, but rather an emerging idea, a proposal looking for a team, a new angle or aspect of an existing project that has not yet been developed, or an idea for a possible project that needs to be tested.  

• A prototype can be tangible or intangible.  
• It may be a proposal for a tool, a device or an interface. 
• A research strategy or an action plan. 
• An idea for an intervention or performance around something difficult to understand. 
• A collective inquiry or intervention. 
• An alternative model or protocol for identifying, explaining or modifying multi-scale problems. 

Most importantly, a prototype is a proposal that will benefit from the context of collaboration and co-creation offered by Medialab. 

> What's the topic? Why ‘Weird Futures'? 

In a context where narratives of stability, security and linear progress are fading in the face of the increasing and deliberate production of volatility and its instrumentalisation, technological promises are becoming tools for reshaping the world. Cyberpunk visions become strategic plans. Dystopias turn into business models.  

The Collaborative Prototyping Lab revolves around the themes of the year-long LAB 4 Weird Futures programme and is an invitation to explore some of the material and symbolic vectors that, by invoking possible futures, actively contribute to redefining the foundations of contemporary society. By looking at extreme cases, strange technological histories and radical alternatives, our aim is to understand the mutations of technological power that coagulate around the dilemma of control versus chaos through an extravagant and uncanny lens: the concept of teslaforming.  

You can read more about these ideas in the LAB 4 White Paper. 

> What are we looking for? 

Specifically, we are interested in proposals for ideas and project prototypes related to some of the main axes of the teslaforming concept:  

• Technomyths and extremophile histories  
• Utopian energies  
• Institutional futurism  
• Neopropaganda  

The prototypes should address specific cases that allow an understanding of these axes and their interrelations.  

Proposals may be focused on material observation —such as analysis of systems, models, and liminal or strange phenomena within them; experimental forms of mapping and documentation; journeys, explorations and adventures— or the creation of potential alternatives, such as experimental designs, visionary projects, alternative models or systems, unusual interventions in a technologically mediated public sphere. 

> What does Medialab offer? 

The organisation of an intensive residency with the 5 authors of the initial ideas (also called ‘promoters), plus 20 collaborators from different countries who are committed to collaboratively develop these ideas and, finally, 3 international mentors who will share their experience in research and creation to contribute to the collaborative creative process. 

Medialab will cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the authors of the selected proposals who don’t live in Madrid, regardless of their place of origin. Lunch will be provided for all participants during the Lab's days, from Monday to Friday. 

Participation in the lab sessions must be in person and for the entire duration of the programme. Medialab will also cover some production costs and provide technical support in areas defined in the full description rules of the call. 

> Deadline  

Until 15th June at 23:59h CET

> What documentation is required?  

Please check the full description of the open call. 

> How do I submit my proposal? 

Through this online form.