Marginal

OPEN CALL for Marginal Storytellers >>> The Urban Green Blueprint 🌿🏙️

We are looking for 3 Bucharest-based creators (journalists, storytellers, researchers or visual artists) to join The Urban Green Blueprint – interested in environmental issues, interdisciplinary storytelling, and moving beyond data visualization towards knowledge production.

The selected participants will work alongside 4 artists and 4 researchers from the Institute of Biology Bucharest and 2Celsius documenting the "behind the scenes" of the project through process journalism and personal narratives.

We are looking for subjective lenses to translate complex data into engaging stories about dark diversity, landscape amnesia, and our more-than-human neighbors.

Apply until May 15 → link in bio

Possible directions:
🧪 Gonzo & Process Journalism – unfiltered field diaries & essays.
📹 Ecomediality – native video content, Reels & micro-documentaries.
📸 Visual Narratives – investigative photography & visual experiments.
🎙️ Audio Diaries – raw interviews & soundscapes from the field.

Details:
📍 Location: Bucharest
⏳ Duration: May – August 2026.
💰 Fee: 3.000 LEI (before taxes).
🚀 Access: Direct contact with researchers, artists, and scientific infrastructure.
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Cultural project co-financed by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN)

The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the project results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

>OPEN CALL< Unplugged? 🔌⛓️‍💥
No bottomless grid. No next-gen batteries. No infinite growth.

Marginal, V2_, and Projekt Atol invites artists, technologists, and designers to work within the premises of permacomputing: Energy is finite. Systems fail. Growth has limits. Now what?

We’re looking for 10 projects engaging with post-energy thinking. Not greener tech myths. Not shinier batteries. But grounded, critical, operational alternatives.

Apply until March 9th → links in first comment

Each participant receives a €1500 stipend + additional production budget (discussed individually).
Open to artists and designers working critically at the intersection of art and technology, based in Europe.

The residency will involve a hybrid format → online sessions + on-site co-creation in Bucharest RO.
More details on our website.

🌿 That’s a wrap on Hush Glitches at CNDB! ✨

For two nights, we blurred the line between organism and algorithm, between sensors and sensibility, as we translated Alexandra Necula's physiological input into live reaction of the endemic plants' digital twins, and generative music from Andrei Raicu.

Thank you to everyone who stepped into this live laboratory and helped us expand our proposal for a more-than-human dialogue. The plants certainly had their say.

Stay tuned - we’ll be sharing the full research breakdown soon.

More info: marginal.ro/project/hush-glitches/

Photo credit: Alina Ușurelu .na.floresta

🔴 Team
Concept:
Performer: .necula
Choreography: , Alexandra Necula
Music: Andrei Raicu
Scientific Research: ,
3D Modelling & Animation: .child,
Interaction Design: ,
Scientific Support: , Sorin Ștefănuț
Artistic Support: , Mirela Vlad, .suru

Partners: Bucharest Institute of Biology - , , , .ro, ,

Co-financed by the Timișoara City Hall through the Project Center, and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

Thank you Zile si Nopti for featuring us in the sneak preview of the upcoming Hush Glitches performance: https://zilesinopti.ro/2025/12/06/hush-glitches-ecologie-arta-digitala/ [article in Romanian]

Built as a transdisciplinary collaboration across dance, biology, and interactive digital art, Hush Glitches challenges us to question: Can we truly relate to non-human life without colonizing it with our own metaphors?

The performance will be shown at CNDB, on December 13 & 14, starting 19:30.
👉 Free entrance, reservation required: https://forms.gle/g9enGETaBXbZGG7a8

🔴 Team
Concept: Andrei Tudose
Performer: Alexandra G Necula
Choreography: Ada Anghel, Alexandra Necula
Music: Andrei Raicu
Scientific Research: Luciana Andrei, Codrut Petre
3D Modelling & Animation: Alina Rusu, Gabriel Stoiciu
Interaction Design: Lorena Cocora
Scientific Support: Roxana Nicoara, Sorin Ștefănuț
Artistic Support: Simona Deaconescu, Mirela Vlad, Sabina Suru

Partners: Institute of Biology Bucharest, Centrul Naţional al Dansului Bucureşti, SIMULTAN Festival, Tangaj Collective, Indecis

Co-financed by the Timișoara City Hall through Centrul de Proiecte Timișoara, and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN).
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

Hush Glitches: O întâlnire fragilă între ecologie și artă digitală • Performing arts • Zile și Nopți Hush Glitches: O întâlnire fragilă între ecologie și artă digitală

🌿 Can we build a meaningful relationship with non-human life without imposing our narratives?

Hush Glitches, the result of our research into body, botany and technology, places endemic Romanian plants—reconstructed as living digital twins—at the center of a technological dialogue. More than presenting a dance show, Hush Glitchies challenges anthropocentric thinking. The installation captures the plants' data-driven responses, creating a dialogue mediated by technology that refuses to reduce vegetal existence to mere symbols.

🗓️ Dec 13 & 14, 19:30
🎟️ Free entry. Reservation required: https://forms.gle/g9enGETaBXbZGG7a8

More info: marginal.ro/project/hush-glitches/

🔴 Team
Concept:
Performer: .necula
Choreography: , Alexandra Necula
Music:
Scientific Research: ,
3D Modelling & Animation: .child,
Interaction Design: ,
Scientific Support: , Sorin Ștefănuț
Artistic Support: , Mirela Vlad, .suru

Partners: Bucharest Institute of Biology - , UNATC, , .ro, ,

Co-financed by the Timișoara City Hall through , and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN - ).
The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

🔗 ADMISSION Entry is free, but seats are limited. Please register in advance: https://forms.gle/g9enGETaBXbZGG7a8

Back in September, Space Shelter Earth-B-02 came to be a complex terrain dedicated to sheltering the human psyche. The questions it raised, about the ecologies of nature and society, of technology and knowledge, still linger as we go through the pictures of the public evening.

Conceived by Annick Bureaud and Marcus Neustetter , Space Shelter Earth brought together artists and scientists - Ada Anghel, Liviu Bulea , Cosmin Ciobanu, Alexandra Costea, Roxana Nicoarā, Alexandra Sofonea, Sabina Suru, and Vitaly Yankovy - to explore the theme Of Nature, Concrete, Cracks and Power. The resulting structure - built through intensive collective processes at Atelier030202 - was the embodied trace of the urgent dialogues sparked in Bucharest.

This deep inquiries and vital conversations about survival architectures and embodied experiences are now being unspooled, forming the basis for upcoming Mic Matters broadcast. Tune in soon!

Photo Credits:
1, 2, 5, 6, 7 by Liviu Bulea
3, 4, 8, 9, 10 by Alexandra Costea

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Space_Shelter_Earth_Bucharest_2025 - Anghel, Badea, Bulea, Bureaud, Ciobanu, Costea, Neustetter, Nicoarā, Sofonea, Suru, Tudose, Yankovy.
Part of the PS:Earth project by Marginal Romania, co-funded by AFCN .

The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

During the Space Shelter Earth (by Annick Bureaud and Marcus Neustetter) stage of the PS:Earth project, the space became an open context for shared dialogue. We built a temporary habitat to shelter not just bodies, but memories, contradictions, and the essential questions sparked by artists, scientists, and the public. Those collective, urgent conversations about planetary responsibility and technological ambition were too vital to end when the installation was dismantled. It was amazing that Annick Bureaud and Marcus Neustetter included Bucharest in their nomadic Space Shelter Earth project, which was an inspiration for what's next to come

Without further ado, we are thrilled to launch Mic Matters, our brand new Marginal broadcast dedicated to amplifying the overlooked voices and ideas at the edges of the traditional discourse.

Mic Matters is the platform where thinkers, artists, and researchers continue to map the complex systems that shape our world - from social structures and the planet’s health, to the critical evaluation of technology and knowledge creation. This is our open, shared space for critical dialogue, moving beyond headlines to collaboratively seek new ways of relating to the most pressing societal issues around us.

Listen deeply and discover your voice in the conversations that matters. First episode drops next week.

Photo Credits:
1, 2, 5, 6 by .bulea2
3, 4
7, 8 by

Space_Shelter_Earth_Bucharest_2025 - Anghel, Badea, Bulea, Bureaud, Ciobanu, Costea, Neustetter, Nicoarā, Sofonea, Suru, Tudose, Yankovy.
Part of the PS:Earth project by Marginal Romania, co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

Throwback to last week's fantastic opening night for Soft Thresholds!

This weekend the exhibition is open from Friday until Sunday, from 15:00 to 19:00 at (Str. Sfanta Vineri nr 11), with stories about blackbirds adaption to urban environments, navigating bacterial realities, ecological heritage and fugitive methane emissions.

If you missed the opening, there's still plenty of time to explore the closing exhibition of the Otherwise Residency until October 28th. Artists Ida Hiršenfelder , Sabina Suru .suru, Laura Cinti , and Andreea Săsăran and the researchers Andreea Ciobotă , Mihaela Ciobotă .ciobota.7, Simona Neagu , Mihaela Stancu .stancu72, Roxana Nicoară , Carmen Maximilian, and policy influencers Mihai Stoica .mihai.andrei and Théophile Humann-Guilleminot explored new forms of survival and coexistence, blurring the thresholds between human and non-human, between art and science, and between what we see and what we don't.

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Otherwise Residency is produced by Marginal, with research support from the Institute of Biology Bucharest ( ) and 2Celsius (). The residency is curated by Andrei Tudose (), with art-sci consultancy from Claudia Schnugg ( ).

Partners: , , , .ro ,

The project is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund ( ) and by the Bucharest City Hall through ARCUB (.bucuresti ), in the framework of the Bucharest Together 2025 program. The content of this material does not necessarily represent the position of the funders.

Photo credit: 1, 2 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 - Alina Ușurelu noite.na.floresta; 4 and 8 - Alexandru Paul

The invisible processes behind extractivism - Andreea Săsăran and Sabina Suru talking with Daria Ghiu at Orașul vorbește la RRC about what's behind the Soft Thresholds - Closing Exhibition of the Otherwise Residency.

The exhibition is open today and until October 28th at Atelier030202 (Sfânta Vineri 11). Schedule for the next week:
> Saturday, 11th: 15-19
> Sunday, 12th: closed
> Monday, 13th: 14-15:30, guided tour for cultural managers (registration via [email protected])
> Tuesday, 15th: closed
> Wednesday, 16th: 11:00-12:30 guided tour
> Thursday, 17th: 15-19
> Friday, 18th: 15-19

Andreea Săsăran: „Când imaginăm vizual lucruri abstracte, informația devine mai accesibilă” Când arta face vizibil invizibilul: Otherwise Residency transformă știința în emoție vizuală Poate arta să traducă limbajul științei în