The Baltic Goes Digital – contest for individual artist and team

The Baltic Goes Digital is an open contest for artworks that utilize web-based, mobile or locative media to create a vision of an imaginary, non-existent Baltic City. The contest is open to artists and anyone interested in its subject matter (e.g. graphic artists, designers, architects, programmers, etc.) from the Baltic states – i.e. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Germany and Denmark.

The teams need to be composed of a maximum of three people. In such a case, at least 1 member needs to be an artist.

The theme of the contest involves the creation of an imaginary and utopian version of a “Baltic City” – i.e. a town that no longer exists or does not exist yet. Obviously, the very idea of creating a utopian city is nothing new. History knows many urban planning and architectural designs that aimed to create the perfect municipal tapestry that would be ideal for its residents. What is new is the fact that the starting point of our “The Baltic Goes Digital” contest is modern technique that supports unlimited urban visions. Taking advantage of the fact that the internet allows us to get to know the world, we would like to invite artists to compose interactive spaces combining the cultural and urban aspects of cities located on the Baltic Sea. The digitally-generated cities can be both a combination of existing ones, expansions or improvements on them or a utopian vision of a single Baltic city that goes beyond our reality or remains parallel to it.

We invite artists and teams whose projects explore and redefine the public space concept. We ask whether the new digitalized public space offered by the internet can be used to create and communicate art. Can works of art that function in the internet arena or are widely accessible through our mobile phones be treated in the same way as a  sculpture in the main square of a city? What new public space opportunities are offered by these new technologies? We invite artists to submit projects that explore these issues and provide interesting answers.

14 art institutions, museums and academies from the South Baltic area joined forces in this collaboration to create a co-operative platform for art and academia in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Russia and Lithuania.

The Art Line website located at www.artline-southbaltic.eu/commission will be offered as an experimental digital exhibition arena for the art works.

The authors of the 3 winning projects chosen by an international jury will be invited to cooperate with us and complete their works. Each winning contestant will receive remuneration of EUR 2000 and a budget of EUR 1000 to realize the concept. The organizers will also cover the costs of accommodation and travel to Gdansk for the opening of exhibition /Fall 2012/.

The works will be presented in a virtual gallery, available on the Art Line project website until 2018, and as an exhibition in the Gdansk Municipal Gallery /Fall 2012/. The winning artworks will be also presented in partner art institutions or during public events.

The deadline for submitting applications for the contest is the 16th of July 2012. Valid applications should be emailed to: balticgoesdigital@nck.org.pl

The Regulations for the contest have been specified in the “The Baltic Goes Digital Contest Guidelines”, which are available at  
www.artline-southbaltic.eu, www.nck.org.pl, and www.ggm.gda.pl.

http://artline-southbaltic.eu/contest/