I don’t know of any residencies/colonies that are specifically oriented towards programmers. Many (like VCCA & McDowell, mentioned in the article) are focused t

I don’t know of any residencies/colonies that are specifically oriented towards programmers. Many (like VCCA & McDowell, mentioned in the article) are focused towards fine art, and often aren’t interested in technological projects. However, there are several hundred residencies just in the US, and definitely some that are more progressive towards welcoming artists working in new media, including programming. I ran a small-scale residency (in West Virginia) for four years. I had a couple of more technically-oriented artists attend, including a music composer who was developing an interactive/generative system to be installed in NYC’s Highline park. She’d built a custom Arduino controller that interfaced with light sensors, and spent much of her three weeks at my place programming the algorithms (in Cycling74’s Max and C++, as I recall). We tested the installation one night in my woods with a bunch of friends exploring with flashlights. Years before, I did a residency in San Diego (at a site now closed) where I spent a week developing some network software. I had to make some effort to explain to the folks running the residency why a programmer could use this sort of time, but it was definitely worth it. One of my favorite tech-oriented residencies is Wave Farm, which encourages ‘new transmission works (artist works made with, about, and for the airwaves).’ Go here for a great directory of residencies: https://www.artistcommunities.org/residencies/directory https://www.artistcommunities.org/residencies/directory Most residencies are about making art in some way. That doesn’t mean you have to be a painter or writer, but it does mean that you need to be able to contextualize your work and consider how it might be socially useful or at least interesting. So if you decide to go this direction, spend some time understanding how other artists use this kind of experience, as well as what the residencies themselves are looking for.