COSMOS Ambassadors Programme Call Out

DEADLINE: 12:00 on Tuesday 21 May 2019

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) and SHIFT are delighted to announce the second year for this exciting opportunity for residents of Cheshire East.

COSMOS is flagship international art-science residency exploring deep space – taking place at Jodrell Bank. Scheduled to take place annually, COSMOS invites an international artist to create a new audio-visual work developed using data collected by the iconic Lovell Telescope.

The COSMOS Ambassadors Programme is open to anyone living in Cheshire East who is interested in gaining hands on experience in digital arts and art-science collaborations. The opportunity will provide training for 10 individuals who will participate in a series of workshops in the lead up to the bluedot festival. Ambassadors will then play an active role in the delivery and audience engagement of the COSMOS commission during the bluedot festival from 18 – 21 July 2019, working closely with AND and ARUP staff.

The aim of the programme is to embed some of the learning from this ambitious art-science collaboration in Cheshire East, by building participants skills and confidence as art-science communicators / advocates.

THE PROGRAMME
As a COSMOS Ambassador you will receive:

• 3 x day training sessions in June & July 2019 delivered by AND and Cheshire East Council
• Insight and practical resources prepared by AND to digital arts and art-science collaboration
• Opportunity to attend inspiring events as part of bluedot festival
• Individual guidance and peer to peer support
• Budget to support travel and subsistence costs to participate in the programme

You will be expected to:

• Attend all elements of the programme (see key dates below)
• Bring an enthusiasm to learn and engage with the programme, and share this this with the wider SHIFT and Cheshire East community
• Help us build the next stage of the programme by telling us what worked and what didn’t work

KEY DATES
Ambassadors should be available to participate in the follow dates:

• Sun 9 June – Ambassadors Training Day #1 @ Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield
• Sat 6 July – Ambassadors Training Day #2 @ Crewe
• Thu 11 July – Ambassadors Training Day #3 @ Manchester
• 18-21 July – bluedot festival*, Jodrell Bank, Macclesfield

*ambassadors must be available to participate in a minimum 3 of the 4 of the festival days

• ELIGIBILITY
  The opportunity is open to anyone over the age of 18 living in Cheshire East, who has an interest in gaining hands on experience with digital arts.
• We specifically encourage applications from young people (18+) and adults who are out of work.
• There will be a maximum of 10 ambassadors places available, priority will be given to those who have not previously taken part in COSMOS Ambassadors.
• AND is an equal opportunities employer and we very much welcome applications from all members of the community.

HOW TO APPLY
Applications must be submitted via the online form and deadline for applications is 12:00 on Tuesday 21 May 2019. Applications must include the following:

• CV (no more than 2 x A4 pages)
• Short statement about yourself and why you are interested in the opportunity (no more than 200 words)
• Written Reference: this can be from an employee, teacher, mentor, someone who knows you well and would like to nominate you for the programme based on your digital and communication skills, and your commitment to the programme

Please submit all documents (including materials 1-3 above) as one .PDF format document. The limit for uploads on the upload site is 10MB, if your submission exceeds this please provide a link to files using transfer services like wetransfer or dropbox.

For any queries relating to your submission, or you require assistance to participate in the submission process, please contact jobs@andfestival.org.uk.

Read about the experiences of our COSMOS Ambassadors in 2018.

Look back on COSMOS 2018 with Addie Wagenknecht’s Hidden in Plain Sight.

Lead image is of our COSMOS Ambassadors at bluedot festival 2018, photo by Chris Foster.

COSMOS is a flagship international artists commission and residency for Lovell Telescope. Produced by Abandon Normal Devices, commissioned by Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire East Council as part of SHIFT and Abandon Normal Devices. Supported by University of Manchester, bluedot, Arup, with public funds from Arts Council England (ACE) and CreativeXR, a joint collaboration between Digital Catapult and ACE.