Framer Framed

Open Call: Open Archief 4.0

The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision (S&V), Nieuwe Instituut and the International Institute of Social History (IISH) come together again to form a new edition of Open Archief, with Framer Framed joining as a partner! With this new collaboration, Open Archief aspires to become a space for experimentation and creation that functions beyond, but not disconnected from, the institutional framework of archives, while still being able to acknowledge its origin.

Passionate about the creative reuse of archives? Submit your proposal by 17:00 on 6 July 2025. 

Open Archief 4.0 consists of two residencies that welcome artists, writers, curators and artistic researchers for a four-month residency period. During the residency, they will each create a printed publication, fuelled by their artistic practice, experimentations and findings. Central to the working practice of the project are interactions with the open digital collections of the three institutions and the network of Framer Framed. The selected residents will receive a grant (allowance and production budget) of €5.000. The deadline for the submission of proposals is 17:00 on 6 July 2025.

Through the Open Archief project, the three archival institutes are opening up their collections for creative reuse. Inviting two residents in which creative research and artistic practice are central provides fresh insights into the accessibility and visibility of the public digital collections. In this way, the institutes hope to be able to better facilitate users and better support creators in the development of (autonomous) research and creation of works of art. The residency program acts as a testing ground for new methodologies of working with – and within – archival collections and institutions, questioning existing practices, ways of access and undiscovered ways of activating heritage materials.

Collections

The Sound and Vision collection contains over a million hours of historical audio-visual materials; Nieuwe Instituut manages one of the world’s largest architecture archives; and the IISH collection (a library plus archival and audio-visual materials) has an emphasis on social movements; The Framer Framed website functions as a digital archive, presenting 15 years of exhibitions, events and people. Growing portions of these collections are being made accessible under open access-licences (such as CC BY) and are available for creative reuse.

View the collections online here: zoeken.beeldengeluid.nl, zoeken.nieuweinstituut.nl, search.iisg.amsterdam and archive.framerframed.nl.

Working Period

Open Archief offers two residencies for the period from September 2025 to January 2026 (with a winter break in December), the duration of which allows space for research, experimentation and drafts. The selected residents will each receive a grant of €5.000 (€4.000 allowance and €1,000 production budget). During the working period, the residents have the opportunity to undertake physical and online research and to create a printed publication in February 2026.

The publication follows the format of a chapter of the book Open Archief, Artistic Reuse of Archives. Open Archief aims to facilitate multiple residencies over the upcoming years, and by following this format, leads up to the creation of a second book.

In addition to the publication, the residents are invited to come up with a public presentation that hosts and embodies their residency outcomes best. This can be for example an installation or a public screening, but also a city walk, workshop series or a shared meal.

The residents will receive support from the staff of the four organisational partners, external experts and long time collaborator and designer Marius Schwarz. They are expected to make an active and positive contribution to the other activities associated with the project, such as the Re:Use Clinics and blog posts.

Criteria

The proposal must comprise of a new research topic, a printed publication and public presentation, based on the open collections of (one or more of) the four partner organisations. The proposal must:

• explore and question heritage in the public domain;
• have a clear theme that is supported by the (usage of) archive materials;
• contribute to diversity and use the archive materials to tell new stories.

We are looking for individuals who:

• are graduates, living in the Netherlands with a work permit;
• identify as an artist, designer, creative thinker, curator, writer or creator;
• have an affinity for archive materials, audio-visual work, graphic design, architecture, social history and/or art;
• have demonstrable insight into or experience with creative reuse.

Submissions

Proposals may be submitted in English or Dutch until 17:00 on 6 July 2025 by email to openarchief@beeldengeluid.nl

The proposal must consist of:

• a motivation letter with a clear and concise project description and your motivation for working with open heritage
• materials (max 2 pages);
• appendix I: portfolio (max 5 pages);
• appendix II: CV (max 2 pages).
• The proposal may contain links to videos or websites.

Assessment Procedure
The jury, consisting of representatives from the four organisational partners, and a former resident, will select two residents from the proposals. The two residents will be announced on 28 July. No draft of the proposal may be submitted in advance. Candidates will receive confirmation of the receipt of their proposal by email no later than one week after the submission deadline.

Want to know more or have a question about the process? Visit www.openarchief.com for updates, visual materials, press releases and blogs, or send an email to cmartens@beeldengeluid.nl

Image from the work of previous OA resident, Belit Sağ.

Links

• Het Nieuwe Instituut - Museum of architecture, design and digital culture
• Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision
• Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis - IISG