Creative Futures: Counterstructures
A residency for creative technologists to prototype new cultural R&D for AI.
About the Program
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.
Cultural R&D
What if we asked creative communities what kind of tech they want—and then built it? Through our Imaginative Intelligences Assemblies, Mozilla Foundation and the Berggruen Institute convene communities to articulate design principles for AI that put creativity at the center. Counterstructures residencies then turn those principles into tangible cultural artifacts, installations, and tools.
Each residency responds to a different Imaginative Intelligences: at tiat, residents prototyped in response to the eight design principles distilled with Hollywood artists and creatives, while at Rhizome, residents took up principles of the commons articulated by our global futurist communities.
Past Residencies
tiat—San Francisco
Our inaugural residency, hosted with tiat, asked creative technologists to prototype cultural infrastructure in response to the design principles of Hollywood's 8 Rules for AI. The resulting artifacts foregrounded human-in-the-loop creation, creative friction, transparency, lineage, slowness, and ecosystem stewardship.
Final works included a beating-heart installation that responds to human interaction, a microbial-powered AI hardware prototype, and an iterative performance where poetry evolved through audience feedback. Across the residency, over 300 AI researchers, engineers, artists, and students joined the public programming and final exhibition.
Rhizome—New York City
Our Counterstructural Commons residency with Rhizome explored how artists can build alternatives to centralized technological systems. Responding to principles of the commons, the residency engaged the tension between openness and extraction: how to advocate for an open commons while recognizing that openness has also left artists vulnerable to scraping and exploitation.
Residents worked weekly from Rhizome's Lower Manhattan offices, developing counterstructures that took up guiding principles around community governance, technological agency, commoning, consent, human-AI relations, and ecological accountability. Final projects were presented publicly at the New Museum.
Program 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.
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 specific to the residency call and articulated by the most recent Imaginative Intelligence assembly.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, as part of a culminating presentation.
How to apply
We currently do not have any residencies running. Stay tuned for more updates about our open calls and exhibition dates.