INAUGURAL Cultural TECHNOLOGIES lab international gathering

December 5–7, 2025

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Why HSINCHU CITY, TAIWAN?

Hsinchu is at the heart of a significant shift towards a digital culture driven by AI. It positions itself as a hub for the tech industry, featuring leading universities, scientific research institutions, and manufacturing facilities like the TSMC campus. Its underlying current—an active arts and cultural scene—evolves through responses influenced by challenges such as climate threats, historical colonial impacts, and the influence of global powers.

The residency gathering will take place at General Village, a former military dependent’s village repurposed into a cultural cluster. Situated in close proximity to multiple heritage sites, educational facilities, the Hsinchu Science Park, and residential communities, the site attracts a diverse range of people from both arts and non-arts backgrounds.

The location responds to our broader call for cultural adaptation, from local actions to global networks.

Programs

STUDIO VISITS

Studio Visits are exactly what they sound like. Rather than artist talks and broad-scope panel discussions, artists and cultural workers share their practices with their peers through works-in-progress, questions, and provocations.

Goblin Market

Goblin Market functions as an experimental artists' knowledge exchange program and a social experiment in cultural reciprocity. It fosters resilience through post-scarcity frameworks that challenge capital-driven cultural production and instead focus on grounding arts and culture within the needs of communities and neighbourhoods.

Near the conclusion of its programming, artists will collaboratively organize a public event to demonstrate how the arts serve as community connectors and to foster resilience through cultural creation.

This tested model has proven successful in Toronto and Montreal by fostering deeper engagement and relationships with local communities, challenging the traditional idea of what an artistic experience should be.

Satellite Events

The Cultural Technologies Lab is rooted in network-building. Rather than taking a trip, we encourage artists and cultural practitioners globally to join our gathering by hosting their own satellite events at a location accessible to them or online.

Events can be scheduled to happen anytime from December 1 to December 8, 2025.

We welcome both online and in-person events that explore cultural responses to uncertainties like AI, automation, ecological issues, and other unresolved challenges. It could be a workshop, speech, gathering, potluck, or a hangout at your local park—you choose.

To submit an event, please email Husna Farooqui at culture@ukaiprojects.com

  • Thanks to the support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Artsite Accton Foundation, the gathering is free to attend.

    Studio Visits may require an RSVP and Pay-As-You-Wish tickets.

  • View on Google Maps

    For more information about General Village, visit: https://www.gvillage.tw

  • Satellite Events include activities hosted by the Cultural Technologies Lab community taking place between December 1st and 8th, 2025. They might consist of an asynchronous event from a Local Lab situated in a different city or country, or an online event of resonating themes.

    To submit an event for consideration, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

CO-CREATORS

Being in an arts residency or being invited to participate in an arts event or festival often evokes a sense of prestige that is only recognized in the art world. We settle into routine without considering the deeper meaning of what creating art truly entails. For the Cultural Technologies Lab, joining this gathering means co-creating the experience together.

The following people are co-creating the in-person experience for audiences in Hsinchu, Taiwan and those joining through satellite events:

More to be added