The Future Imagination Collaboratory (FIC) is an artist-led, creative research center supporting interdisciplinary, and inter-sectional research and collaborations that identify and solve problems, communicate their solutions, and create a more equitable and more beautiful future for individuals and communities. Drawing inspiration from the earliest collaboratories in computer science and engineering - the first research "centers without walls" - this new research environment, launched in January 2020, enables and facilitates new collaborations across and within NYU as well as with artists, theorists, designers, technologists, community organizations and others.
How does it work?
The FIC provides an opportunity for thinkers/makers/doers to cross paths with one another and to pursue the resulting and emergent strategies for discovery and invention. By offering time, space and resources to a small and highly-curated number of Fellows, FIC emphasizes quality of experience over quantity. By inviting the Fellows to bring their creative, collaborative, inter-disciplinary networks into their projects, the FIC foregrounds the intrinsic value of all represented fields of knowledge, creating shared language and practices, cultivating hybrid talent, and strategically embedding artists, technologists, designers, scientists and experts in each other’s processes. The inaugural cohort of FIC Fellows were welcomed to Tisch in January 2020 for a one-year experiment that overlapped with the Covid19 global pandemic.
The Future Imagination Collaboratory is a program of the Future Imagination Fund, and is administered by the Tisch Initiative for Creative Research (TCR).
Future Imagination Collaboratory 2023-2024
The Future Imagination Collaboratory (FIC) 2023-2024 will provide funding for artists, theorists, designers, technologists and others (now called “Researchers”) to be in residence in academic departments at Tisch for a one-year period. Researchers will be nominated by Tisch academic departments and programs. We are looking for artists and researchers with an established creative practice who would benefit from the support of the program. We are particularly looking for applicants:
with a creative practice that crosses and blurs boundaries of existing disciplines
who represent leadership in their respective fields and communities
whose body of work explores the importance of building, nurturing and engaging community
who are open to regular and direct participation with the Tisch community; and,
who live in the tri-state area
Please Note: the Collaboratory does not provide housing or housing subsidy although Researchers are required to spend significant time on campus
The 2023-2024 FIC Collaboratory will take place from November 2023 through October 2024. Each Researcher accepted into the program takes part in the following benefits and responsibilities:
Financial Support. Each Collaboratory Researcher receives a stipend over the year to support their creative practice. (Researchers are not hired as full-time or adjunct faculty.)
Resource Support. FIC Researchers have dedicated space in their “home” departments as well as at the Downtown Brooklyn campus of Tisch School of the Arts (370 Jay Street). Additionally, they will have access to general NYU and Tisch resources including research libraries and technical support.
Regular Participation. FIC Researchers meet on a regular basis to share ideas and works in progress, and to explore collaborations with members of the Tisch community. As part of the proposal process, they will also develop ways to connect more locally with the students and faculty of their home departments. Researchers are expected to spend a minimum of 1 full day on-site per week.
Community Engagement. FIC Researchers are expected to connect with Tisch students and faculty within their home departments, and to take part in a handful of Tisch-facilitated public events during the year. These include, at minimum, a welcome event in October 2023 and an informal sharing of research in Spring 2024.
Creative Output. There are no specific requirements for artistic work during the residency although FIC Researchers are expected to continue to develop projects and ideas as part of their ongoing creative practice. They are also expected to make their research and practice accessible through at least one non-curricular teaching activity within their department, and a culminating public presentation (which may be conducted as a cohort).