Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art) - A Juried International Competition :: Call for Proposals - Deadline: December 15, 2008

Five writers will be commissioned to develop chapters for a networked book about networked art. The chapters will be open for revision, commentary, and translation by online collaborators. Each commissioned writer will receive $3,000 (US).

Project Committee: Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN), Martha CC Gabriel (net artist, Brazil), Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands), Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute for Technology, MA); and Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA), Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA), Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA), Eduardo Navas (newmediaFIX), Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)

Networked Partners: New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) :: newmediaFIX :: LA Freewaves :: Telic Arts Exchange.

“A networked book is an open book designed to be written, edited and read in a networked environment.” - Institute for the Future of the Book

Networked Goals: (1) to commission five chapters and publish them online using Wiki/blog technology to enable the public to revise, update, debate and translate them; (2) to present public forums to publicize the online book and solicit participation in its development.

Networked Objectives:

• To develop and publish an online, trans-disciplinary book that will address recent artistic developments made possible by computers, networks, and mobile connectivity
• To present the book in an open, participatory and social form
• To document:

a) the collapse of the traditional distinction between artist, art work and audience
b) the shaping of creative practice that is open, contingent and participatory
c) the building of virtual communities which, in the words of Howard Rheingold, “becomes inevitable wherever computer mediated communications technology becomes available to people anywhere.” (The Virtual Community, 1993)

We invite contributions that critically and creatively rethink how networked art is categorized, analyzed, legitimized — and by whom — as norms of authority, trust, authenticity and legitimacy evolve.

Networked proposes that a history or critique of interactive and/or participatory art must itself be interactive and/or participatory; that the technologies used to create a work suggest new forms a “book” might take.

We hope to spark a conversation between researchers and practitioners, curators, artists, and academics in the fields of art (music, sound, dance, e-lit, visual art …), architecture, convergence, mapping, urbanism, games, sociology, visualization, cultural studies, and environmental studies. In keeping with the transdisciplinary nature of the book, authors may consider, but are by no means limited to, themes such as:

– cyberspace and identity
– ubiquitous computing - surveillance, politics, and privacy
– avatars, wearables, bioart and embodiment
– collective storytelling, audio narratives and sound art
– virtual worlds, mixed realities
– locative media - place, mobility, augmented reality
– massively multiplayer online games - networked play
– responsive architecture and relational environments
– social networks
– nomadism, psychogeography, and the city
– tactical media - performance, agency and activism
– open source and crowdsourcing
– Originality, copies, remix, mashup

All papers will be reviewed by our international committee.

Commissioned chapters, as well as contributions by collaborators, will be subject to the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0/Unported.

Once the chapters are published online, registered users will be able to revise, add to, and translate the existing texts. There is no end date for the project. When Networked has attracted substantive participation, we will consider publishing a print version of the project, which may itself be updated over time.

GUIDELINES:

Submissions must be based on original, unpublished research. They should include:

1. Name, address, URL, email and one page CV of author.

2. A 1000 word proposal that should be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 250 words and a list of keywords to indicate the subject area of the chapter. [Each of the commissioned chapters will contain text, images, videos, and/or audio.]

3. Three networked writing samples. Samples may include a blog entry, a Wikipedia article the applicant worked on extensively, or samples from any other participatory project (send URLs).

You may write the proposal in any language but you must submit it in English as well. If selected, the chapter will be published in both languages.

Acceptable Submission Formats: Either a web page (send url in an email) or a single text document (send as an email attachment)

Final chapters must be no less than 5,000 words.

Submissions and Questions should be sent to: jo at turbulence dot org

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for Proposals: December 15, 2008
Notification: January 31, 2009
Deadline for Complete Chapters: April 30, 2009
Online Publication Date: July 1, 2009

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Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.