Deadline: 30-Nov-22
Mozilla is seeking creative artists to examine the importance of responsible design in AI — and how the concept of responsible design applies across different geographies and sociocultural experiences.
The Creative Media Awards (CMA) uplift artists and media-makers to investigate complex technical concepts, deepening their understanding of technology while demanding accountability from those who build and deploy it. The Creative Media Awards are part of a comprehensive set of activities supported by the NetGain Partnership, a philanthropic collaboration of ten funders to advance the public interest in the digital age.
The 2023 Creative Media Awards invites artists, digital storytellers, game designers, and creative technologists to examine the role, importance, and meaning of responsible, ethical or justice-centered design in trustworthy AI. Awardees are also invited to explore how the concept of responsible design is understood and implemented across different geographies and sociocultural experiences.
This year’s Creative Media Awardees will be convened as a cohort, or community of practice, whose projects collectively highlight the challenges, opportunities, and implications of designing trustworthy AI across different geographies, demographics, and cultures. Also for this year, Creative Media Awards will run in collaboration with Mozilla’s Africa Innovation Mradi program—a program with focus on the development and governance of technologies and the impact this has on social justice issues, both on and offline in the African Continent. At least two slots of awards will be allocated specifically to applicants from Eastern or Southern Africa.c
CMA projects have:
- increased public awareness of the threats and opportunities of AI around the world
- explored, interrogated, and reimagined the role of data and how it may be better stewarded to empower people and communities
- explored current AI realities or imagined AI futures through the lens of Black experience.
What types of projects are they looking for?
- Projects could be interactive websites, short films, browser-based games, or other digital media that explore specific AI challenges and opportunities, via the lens of responsible, ethical or justice design, pertaining to their geographies, demographics, and cultures
- Projects that explore alternative visions of designing AI technologies while considering the social or political implications of ethical or responsible AI
- Projects that call into question how AI is designed in the corporate or government sectors and uncover values and practices that exacerbate inequalities
- Projects that increase public understanding and awareness of how AI technologies could be designed responsibly and ethically across different geographical contexts and situations.
Award Amount
The awards will range from $15,000 up to $30,000 each. A budget is required as part of the full application. Final award amounts are at the discretion of award reviewers and Mozilla staff.
Benefits
- Impact Design Workshops: Working in partnership with Mozilla and their consultant, each Awardee will create an impact plan—outlining a theory of change for each project, as well as accompanying performance indicators
- Expert/Mentorship Support: All Awardees will have the opportunity to work with subject matter experts, who can be selected from within Mozilla’s network or recommended by the Awardee
- Cohort and Individual Support: All Awardees will either convene virtually and in-person for activities; group working and feedback sessions, peer-to-peer support, learn from guest speakers about relevant topics, and meet 1:1 with Mozilla staff for additional support
- Communication Support: Mozilla’s Communications and Marketing Team will evaluate and offer a spectrum of support to Awardees including developing tailored communication strategies for each project, pitching to local and international media outlets, crafting social media campaigns, and sharing with Mozilla’s website audience and email list
- Showcasing Projects: Many past Creative Media Awardees have shown their work in a variety of regional and global film festivals (IDFA, Tribeca, TIFF, Cannes) and museums (Tate Modern, MoMA, HKW). While they can’t guarantee placement, they can support your submission efforts. In addition, Mozilla holds an annual festival called MozFest which will provide a chance to showcase your work, meet others in your cohort, along with other artists, activists, thinkers, and makers working in the space from around the world
- Project Testing: Awardees will have the option to test their projects before fully launching.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants/Projects must meet the following requirements
- Awards support in-progress works at either the conceptual or prototype stage
- Project must be screen-based media of an artistic or journalistic nature
- Project must be publicly accessible under a Creative Commons license and any project-related code under an open-source license
- Project should be suitable for a non-expert audience and demonstrate the potential to be broadly shared
- Creators must demonstrate an understanding of who their audience is and how they want their project to impact this audience
- Applicants must articulate how the work will help to illuminate an essential shift of power regarding the design and development of trustworthy AI technologies
- Applicants must demonstrate an ability to execute their plan via experience or a prototype
- Applicants who self-identify as any/all the following are encouraged to apply:
- being from the Global Majority or Global South;
- Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color;
- women, transgender and/or gender diverse applicants;
- migrant and diaspora communities; and/or
- coming from climate displaced/impacted communities, etc.
- These awards are open to all applicants regardless of geographical location or institutional affiliation, except where legally prohibited
- Grantees must begin working on their projects on or before the week of March 8, 2023.
For more information, visit https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/what-we-fund/awards/creative-media-awards/call-for-proposals-2023-creative-media-awards/