CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Polyphonies of Palestine Creative Research Residency Call 2027

Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF) and Asiatic Itineraries at OCAD University invite proposals for a creative research residency from interdisciplinary Palestinian media artists, performers, filmmakers, and researchers based in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for Spring 2027.  

Polyphony guides our approach in offering and crafting this program. Polyphony is a term derived from musical theory that describes musical texture where two or more “voices” move in interacting yet independent movements. The voices are considered equal and dynamic in the textures and lines they create together in mutual responsibility. Edward Said admired polyphony for its potential towards “preservation of difference without desire to dominate” and as an antidote or strategy against “totalizing schemes with no room for alternatives” (De Groot 2008, 137). Polyphony demands responsive listening, continued dialogue and the capacity to hold multiple voices in dynamic relations of tension and resolution. Together we ask: how might attuning to polyphony in media praxis act as a guiding critical framework to better understand the complexities of displaced and diasporic living? 

The project broadly invites proposals and practices related to sound, electronics, improvisation, performance, film/video, and transmedia to collaboratively explore the potentials of polyphony — in particular Palestinian polyphony — in expressing and disrupting interlocking scales of displacement and oppression.   

The resident will work alongside John Kameel Farah, a Canadian pianist, composer, and visual artist working with live electronics and systems, as well as the program team to co-develop a program that supports the development of new multimedia work and offers moments of public engagement (exact dates and expectations to be crafted in dialogue with the program team). The ideal residents will develop a program that explores the potentials of Palestinian polyphony through improvisation workshops with sound, electronics, coding and research-creation* processes with OCADU faculty, students, and community members. An expected outcome of the residency program is development of a new media/filmic work by the invited artists, though there is no expectation of presenting completed work by the end of the residency. 

In your application, please include: 

  • 300-word biography and/or artist/research statement, 

  • 500 word proposal that responds to the theme/call 

  • A brief timeline that describes how you imagine engaging the residency time, structure, and resources, 

  • CV and portfolio of related works (web or PDF of 3-5 works; no more than 10 minutes of durational material) with labels and short descriptions (optional) 

The preferred artist, researcher and/or collective will be: 

  • Interdisciplinary Palestinian artists, media-makers, performers, and researchers based in GTA 

  • Ready to engage in collaborative dialogue and processes through the residency 

This opportunity provides: 

  • $3000 CAD Honorarium (based on Individual CARFAC fees, per successful proposal) 

  • Access to OCADU resources and facilities 

  • Research/Studio assistant support (shared) 

  • Programming and public presentation support with teams from Toronto Palestine Film Festival and Asiatic Itineraries Research Centre at OCADU 

Please submit all materials to polyphonypals@ocadu.ca by December 7, 2026 with “Polyphonies of Palestine Creative Research Residency” in the subject line. Email polyphonypals@ocadu.ca for questions.   

 

This project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).