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Mediawall Call – MIX 2017

The biannual conference, Mix 2017 has teamed up with Paper Nations to commission a writer or artistic team to create a new literary artwork for the Bath Spa University’s MediaWall.

For the month of July 2017, we want to commission a new artwork by an artist of international standing, launched as part of the MIX 2017 conference. The artwork will need to include original writing from young people age 8-14. The aim is to encourage a high level of engagement from all young people across England and we would welcome innovative methods for mass participation such as crowdsourcing.

Following the successful delivery of the artwork the Paper Nations team may wish to work with you to further develop the scope of your project. We are keen to use the MediaWall project as a model of best practice for embedding digital writing outreach programmes in schools across England and especially the South-West.

ABOUT PAPER NATIONS

Funded by Arts Council England, Paper Nations is the country’s first and only creative writing hub for young people. This ambitious project brings together the best and most innovative arts organisations, creative writers and educators with a common purpose: to inspire a creative nation of young writers.

The partnership of Bath Spa University, Bath Festivals and The National Association of Writers in Education will use a grant of £600,000 from Arts Council England to develop and deliver a three year programme. The consortium will work with 100 schools and a thriving community of regional arts organisations to create opportunities for pupils from deprived areas to work with nationally-recognised creative writers. A research-led professional development programme for teachers and writers will also be devised.

ABOUT MEDIAWALL

MediaWall is a uniquely positioned digital gallery space consisting of a large set of 55 inch screens viewable in daylight. It is situated in the Newton Park Campus of Bath Spa University, built into the brand-new Commons building and surrounded by green fields, hills and trees. The nearly 8 metre high, 3×10 screen wall stands like a monolith awaiting an inscription.

Since its launch in June 2014 the MediaWall has exhibited a number of artworks including those by international artists Julian Opie and Bruce Munro, and the text-based OAK, which was a response to Letter to the Unknown Soldier.

This is a rare opportunity to create a literary artwork that can be shown at very high resolution (e.g. 1920 x 6000 pixels) in daylight (unlike a projection).

REQUIREMENTS

Your proposal needs to be related in some way to text-based narrative. Your concept could be software/data-driven, interactive, live, internet/mobile linked, sensor or camera-driven.

Your proposal will need to include original writing from Young People age 8-14 in Schools from the South-West of England.

Your proposal needs to address the themes and priorities of Paper Nations. These include helping young people to enjoy creative writing, inspiring a creative nation of young writers, exploring ideas for the future of writing with young people and reaching out to disadvantaged communities within the UK.

The writer/artist or writer-artist team needs to be able to realise their idea technically (with appropriate advice and support from the MIX team).

We expect that the artist will be able to start working on the project from January 1st 2017 (with some consultation and preparatory work in Dec 2016).  We anticipate that the artistic team will dedicate 30 to 60 days to the project in total.

The artist/s  will also need to be available for a minimum two-day visit in March or April, as well as be present for the week before conference up to and including the last day of the conference which runs from 10 -12 July 2017 (7 days in total).

ARTIST BUDGET

The award of £8000 must include a budget covering:

  • Artistic Fees and Expenses.
  • Travel, subsistence, and accommodation for a planning and scoping meeting in Bath between November 2016 and July 2017.
  • Travel, subsistence, and accommodation to setup and test in advance and present your work at the MIX DIGITAL 4 conference.
  • For 6-12th July, you will need to book accommodation on campus at a cost to the budget of £70 per person per night.
  • Equipment needed to support your proposal (ownership of any equipment purchased via the bursary will remain with BSU).
  • The University will provide basic technical support needed for the installation of the work; you would need to budget for advanced development, if required.
  • Communicating with Schools, parents and children online. Paper Nations will provide a framework for communication and PR , but you will need to outline a budget and plan for any bespoke methods of public communication and engagement.

ELIGIBILITY

Technically self-sufficient writer/artist or writer-artist team from anywhere in the world.

Not a current Bath Spa University student, member of staff or recent graduate (< 3 years).

CRITERIA

  • Clarity of proposal
  • Achievability of proposal
  • Suitability of the proposal to the unique features of MediaWall.
  • Potential for engagement with Young People and Schools
  • Appropriateness of proposal to Paper Nations themes and strategic priorities.
  • Viability of budget

MEDIAWALL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

  • MediaWall is powered by one or two PC’s with a 6 output graphic card.
  • MediaWall can be treated as one large screen or any number of smaller screens (depending on the software created for it).
  • There are many floor points in the 10m+ space in front of the wall, to connect peripheral devices, sensors, power etc.

HOW TO APPLY

For questions about the MediaWall and other technical aspects please contact Anthony Head ([email protected]).

For questions about the scope of the call and the Paper Nations project please contact Bambo Soyinka ([email protected]).

***DEADLINE EXTENDED*** Proposals must be sent in before midnight GMT on 14th November 2016. Please send via email to [email protected]  with the following attachments:

  • Proposal – 500 words max, stating what software/technologies are likely to be used.
  • CV’s with short artist statement
  • Project Budget
  • 3 one page statements about previous work and/or portfolio website url
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