The CODE Project

What is CODE about?

We want to make sure the general audience, politicians and policymakers are aware of the digital challenges of our time. We want big tech companies to be regulated, curb their power, and protect our digital rights. What role should governments play, and how can we make them understand the urgency to act? What can we as concerned citizens, researchers, and artists do to support this process?

Through this open call we invite creative professional and non-professional artists and all other concerned citizens from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to embark with us on a five-month journey of dialogue, critical discussion and co-creation about digital rights. Between February and June 2023 you will work with other participants on group artworks to be presented at international festivals and events.

History

CODE was initiated in 2021 as a response to growing concerns that we are losing agency over the digital tools and platforms we use on a daily basis. We believe in the need for better laws and legislation that will protect us as digital citizens and consumers. By creating creative and artistic interventions, our aim is to influence public policy on a national and international level and to create awareness for issues at hand. We want to inspire and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations, which have the potential to catalyse system change. CODE 2023 will be the third edition. In the past two editions we supported almost 50 artists and non-artists to work together and create projects. We also brought together national and European politicians and experts in interviews, panels and presentations, and we presented the participants’ projects at international events including Ars Electronica, Dutch Design Week, Dutch Media Week and the CPDP Conference. The results and all interviews and talks can also be seen at code.impakt.nl