Important Dates
| Art Exhibitions submissions due (updated) | April 12, 2023 |
| Acceptance notifications | May 4, 2023 |
| Final Camera-ready / Catalog Submissions due | May 12, 2023 |
Theme: Resilience
“In a world in rapid and profound transformation, we are all designers…”
Ezio Manzini, Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Social Innovation
ACM DIS 2023 Art Exhibition seeks artworks that grapple with the theme of resilience through proposals that imagine the social-eco-embodied; strategies used to navigate the upheaval, the rapid shift, and the violent onslaught.
“[…] we’re asserting that ideas exist in the material world—in our trowels and classrooms and cars—as much as they exist in our cultural and personal worlds. Therefore, part of our work is to look at how ideas and beliefs are hidden in objects and situations, as well as the impact of the ecologies produced between these objects, situations and ourselves.”
Design Studio for Social Intervention, Ideas/Arrangements/Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice
The words associated with resilience — buoyant, rebounding, elastic — evoke an optimism and belief in design in the world. But what of the not-so-resilient; those objects, situations and selves that have not been quite as resilient as others? What of systems of fragility, brittleness, and imbalance?
Resilience is all about how we respond to bad things. But, bad things — crises across the social, political, ecological — didn’t just begin happening in 2020. The recognition of the arrangements that have led to the current profound transformation is worth examining. Resilience demonstrates the health of a system, a body, a building, a grid. We create and shape these things, and we design and shape the fragility in these things; but is resilience learnable? A transferable toolkit? New and alternative ways of thinking and rethinking, knowing and unknowing, making and unmaking?
This year’s ACM DIS Art Exhibition circles round the creation of artworks that symbolically, aesthetically, experientially recognize the need for distributed agency and enlivened accountability. This track intends to attract diverse artworks, creative inquiry, and arts-inclusive practices that emphasize inter-, trans- and anti-disciplinarity and bring awareness to decolonial thinking and making. In coordination with the DIS 23 theme of resilience, we encourage submissions of critical and experimental approaches to the art-making as well as, its contexts.
The DIS 23 Arts Exhibition will combine both a physical space for experiencing works and an online selection for exhibition. Selected digital works will also be shown within the exhibition space in Pittsburgh.
Preparing and Submitting
The artworks proposed can include many different forms including sound, vision, and performance, as well as works that are not so easily categorized.
Submissions to the Arts Exhibition for DIS2023 are non-anonymous (i.e. names and affiliations should be included in the proposal materials). Submissions must be made through the Precision Conference submission system (PCS).
Submissions must include the following four elements:
1. Proposal: The proposal, in a maximum of six pages in length (including references), should include the following:
- Description of the work including written texts, images, sound, video
- Artist’s statement giving background to the ideas and creation process
- Inspiration, sources, materials, any research related to the artwork
- Artist Profile: short bio, including previous exhibitions
The proposal document should be formatted using the ACM Primary Article Template AND Publication Workflow. Proposers should use the one column version of the designated ACM template (see below). All figures, tables, appendices, and an abstract of fewer than 150 words, must fit within the six-page limit. References DO count towards the page limits.
2. Still Image: Also required is a still image of the work of at least 1500×1200 pixels and a pdf describing the installation or online piece and space requirements/technical details for the artwork.
3. Video (optional): In addition, artists are strongly encouraged to submit a video of up to 5 mins in length for review purposes only. In this case, authors must provide less than 100MB (in MP4 using the codec H264) or provide a link (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo) in the proposal document. The video may be password protected; if this is the case, submitters must include the password with the link.
4. Artwork Specification and Needs. A separate supplemental specification document as a PDF file should be included. This should describe installation and space requirements for the work, as well as the indicative size and any unusual set up requirements. The specification should include up to four photographs or diagrams of the setup, and should outline basic technical requirements needed. In addition, this document should detail any potential risks (e.g. safety) and how the artwork intends to manage these risks.
Formatting your Submission
Submissions to the Arts Track should follow the ACM templates. Online guidance is available: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions
Quick Links to Templates
- Microsoft Word
- LaTeX (Use sample-manuscript.tex for submissions)
- Overleaf (or search for: ACM Conference Proceedings Primary Article)
Selection Process and Criteria for Selection
We are looking for insightful, playful, thought-provoking, evocative, critical, digital and interactive art experiences created by as diverse and broad group of creative practitioners as possible.
Submissions will be jury reviewed by the Arts Chair, along with a panel of artists and scholars. It is anticipated that 10-15 artworks will be accepted. No feedback on submitted applications will be provided.
Submitted proposal documents may be selected for the exhibition catalog (and conference proceedings) or for both the exhibition catalog (and conference proceedings) and the exhibition.
Selection of works for exhibition in Pittsburgh will be based on the following criteria.
- Originality and Novelty: the proposal should demonstrate work that is highly original, creative and imaginative. It should exemplify novel concepts in surprising and challenging ways that add something to what exists already.
- Aesthetics: the work should have a strong aesthetic element and communicate effectively through form, function, behavior and emotion. Aesthetically interesting qualities include features that are pleasing and exciting as well as provocative.
- Realization: the work must have a tangible aspect, in the form of an installation, object or art piece that can be included at a reasonable cost. It should be built and executed to a high standard suitable to be exhibited at DIS 2023.
- Response to theme: The work provides a critical or reflective response or commentary to the main conference theme of resilience
Upon Acceptance
Artwork descriptions will be published in DIS 2023 extended abstracts and appear in the ACM Digital Library. On acceptance, accepted works will be asked to prepare and submit a final camera-ready version of the submission for inclusion the proceedings. The camera ready submission should follow the guidelines of accessible contributions (see below).
Selected artists will also provide a high resolution image and short (<500 word) overview of their work to include within the exhibition catalog.
Accepted submissions will also be asked to prepare and submit a short teaser video (approximately one-minute) to promote contributions at the conference and to share the work with the broader community.
Creating an Accessible ACM Submission
ACM publications are reviewed and read by many people. Making your paper accessible will help to promote the equal participation of people with disabilities. The accessibility chairs have provided additional guidance on making submissions accessible that we encourage submitters to use when preparing their submissions. Please refer to the accessibility guidelines in the call for papers and pictorials for creating accessible submissions/PDFs and as well as guidelines for creating accessible figures and tables
At the Conference / Selected Works
Selected works will be displayed as part of the Art Gallery. Selected artists should be available prior to the main conference for installation of artworks. Full instructions will be provided at the time of acceptance.
*Please note that no funds are available to support the shipping or insurance of artworks or for artists’ fees. Suitable insurance should be arranged by individual contributors. Exhibiting artists in situ in Pittsburgh must be willing to deal with the delivery and installation of any works and provide suitable instructions for any operation details. Artists will need to make arrangements for the removal of their work after the physical show should they be selected. All works must be original and non-infringing of other rights holders within a legal definition.
Venue
To be announced. A gallery space on or near the Carnegie Mellon campus.
DIS2023 Art Exhibition Chair
Grisha Coleman, Northeastern University, MA, USA
DIS2023 Art Exhibition Jury
To be announced.