Creative Futures: Counterstructures
A residency for creative technologists to prototype new cultural R&D for AI.
Creative Futures: Counterstructures Winter 2026 is now accepting applications
Creative Futures: Counterstructures (CFC) is Mozilla Foundation’s 10-week cultural R&D residency where creative technologists and communities come together to imagine, test, and build alternative tech infrastructures.
Through critical learning sessions, hands-on workshops, collaborative play, and a public exhibition, residents will design and prototype experimental counterstructures—cultural artifacts, installations, and tools that question and reframe dominant tech systems.
Art and the commons in focus
What if we asked communities what kind of tech they want—and then built it? That’s what Mozilla Foundation and the Berggruen Institute began this year with Hollywood artists and creatives in the Imaginative Intelligences Assemblies. Together, we distilled eight design principles for AI that put creativity at the center. With tiat we turned those principles into tangible cultural artifacts and tools.
Now, in partnership with Rhizome, we turn to our global futurist communities. The newest edition of CFC will explore the counterstructural commons: local, minimally mediated, inquiry-driven spaces where communities learn about technology together and develop alternatives to extractive systems.
The residency runs weekly in NYC from February 25–April 29, 2026, with a final presentation of projects on May 16, 2026.
The Details
Who participates?
This residency is for creative technologists and multidisciplinary artists who use technology as a medium for cultural inquiry. Participants bring critical perspectives, research-driven practices, and collaborative approaches to emerging tools. Experience with AI can be early-stage or advanced, but some proficiency with coding is required. Because this cohort is hosted by Rhizome in New York, residents must be based in NYC for the full 10 weeks.
We especially welcome applicants who are:
- Developing alternatives to platform-mediated social connection
- Responding to technology’s role in their community’s specific struggles
- Building on histories of commoning, mutual aid, or cooperative practice
- Exploring ecological, interspecies, or non-human collaboration
- Working at the intersection of pedagogy, cultural organizing, and technology
What do residents receive?
- $2,500 (USD): $2,000 stipend + $500 materials budget
- Weekly in-person worksessions at Rhizome’s Lower Manhattan offices
- Guest lectures with practitioners across art, technology, and community design
- Inclusion in Rhizome’s 7×7 program via video documentation
- Publication of final projects in a collective documentation report (online and print)
- Digital preservation of work following Rhizome’s archival guidelines
What do residents do?
Prototype an artifact: Develop a counterstructure— an artifact, installation, system, artwork, or tool— for public exhibition. Projects should take up at least one of the guiding principles around community governance, technological agency, commoning, consent, human-AI relations, or ecological accountability. You can find these principles in the application form.
Participate in programming: Engage in listening, reading, sharing, workshops, and facilitated critique. Residents will test ideas with peers and community members, gaining access to audiences and spaces to refine, iterate, and deepen the work.
Document and reflect: Write a 750-word report capturing the project’s development, process, and insights. Documentation contributes to the Creative Futures Counterstructures Report and the online archive.
Present: Share your work with a public audience at Rhizome’s 7×7 conference afterparty, as part of a culminating presentation.
How to Apply
Applications due January 26, 2026
Applicants will be notified before or by February 19, 2026