counterstructural commons residency
Beginning in January, Rhizome will host the winter edition of Creative Futures: Counterstructures (CFC), Mozilla Foundation’s 10-week cultural R&D residency where creative technologists and communities come together to imagine, test, and build alternative tech infrastructures. Based on the Mozilla Foundation's global futurist communities, we've put together a list of guiding principles (see below) for this residency.
The program will run weekly in NYC from Feb 25, 2026 to April 29, 2026, with a final presentation of finished projects on May 16, 2025. Applications will be juried by Bri Griffin (rhizome community designer), Ruby Justice (designer, writer, and theorist), Sam Lavigne (artist and educator), and Laurel Schwulst (designer and educator).
As AI and algorithmic systems increasingly mediate human decision-making, and as ecological crises demand new models of consensus formation and collaboration, communities need accessible frameworks for examining technological systems. The Counterstructural Commons residency provides technology-focused artists with resources for prototyping and developing a project over the course of 10 weeks. Projects could take many forms, including but not limited to an educational tool, cooperative game format, or a workshop syllabus.
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 at any level, 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.
What will 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 program, as part of a culminating presentation.
Guiding Principles
Infrastructure for public good rather than extractive or proprietary systems
Technologies that create resonance - tools and environments that return agency and aliveness to people rather than absorbing it.
Alternative technological histories and ecological knowledge that inform different digital futures
Joy, play, and beauty as core components of community technology
Consent in human-AI collaboration, including who has standing to grant or refuse it
What neighbors actually think about technology’s role in their lives, beyond platform-generated assumptions
Community-based worldbuilding instead of expert-driven forecasting
Viable and thriving digital commons and how to strengthen them
Technology for diverse realities (literacy, connectivity, device access, culture)
Minimally mediated, inquiry-driven spaces for communal technological learning