To submit a proposal, applicants must sign up for a free Rhizome account. To sign up, please visit: http://rhizome.org/register
There are two parts to proposal submission:
STEP 1. Create a web page for your proposal.
You can do this in one of two ways:
- OPTION A: Create a Rhizome hosted proposal through Rhizome's online application. This doesn't require any knowledge of html.
- OPTION B: Create an externally hosted proposal on your own website.
Rhizome has no preference towards which method you choose.
For OPTION A, simply prepare the required proposal information and enter this information, along with all relevant media, inside the editors on the proposal page. Saving the proposal will create an application page for you on Rhizome.org.
FOR OPTION B, create your own website/webpage for your proposal, submit the required registration information on the proposal page (including the FULL URL for the site and the short project summary). Saving the submission info and including the proper url to your webpage will enter your proposal into the commissions pool. Your webpage MUST have all the information required on the application form (summary, descripton, cv, etc), preferably on the landing page.
Once you have created a web page and/or prepared with your proposal information, you are ready for step 2.
STEP 2. Filling out your application.
If you choose to create a Rhizome-hosted proposal, saving the proposal will create an application page for you on Rhizome.org.
If you choose to host your own proposal, saving the submission info and including the proper url to your webpage will enter your proposal into the commissions pool.
We require the following information on the project proposal web page:
- Project description (500 words max) that discusses your project's core concept, how you will realize your project, and your project's feasibility. If you plan to work with assistants, consultants, or collaborators, their roles and (if possible) names should be included.
- A production timeline and a project budget, which should include your own fee. If you have other funding sources for your project, please indicate this in your budget.
- Your resume or Curriculum Vitae. For collaborative groups, provide either a collective CV or the CV's of all participants.
- Up to five work samples. Note: More is not necessarily better. You should include only work samples relevant to your proposal. If your proposal has nothing to do with photography, don't include images from your photography portfolio. Please provide contextualizing information (title, date, medium, perhaps a brief description) to help the jury understand what they are looking at. The work sample can take any form, as long as it is accessible via the web.
Please note that we do not accept proposals via email, snail mail, or other means. Proposals will be accepted until 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time on the date of the submissions deadline.
The project registration form requires the following additional information:
- Name of artist or collaborative group
- Email address
- Place of residence (city, state/province, country)
- Title of the project (this can be tentative)
- Brief summary of project (500 characters max)
- URL of web-based proposal (optional)
The jury and members will review all proposals online.
The following criteria will be used while reviewing submissions:
- Feasibility. Is it a sound proposal that can be executed successfully within a year?
- Aesthetic innovation, conceptual sophistication, and impact. Will it push the field of technology-engaged art forward?
- Adherence to the Call for Proposals. Does the proposed work creatively engage technology or offer insightful reflections regarding the impact of new tools and media?
- Momentum. The Rhizome Commissions Program supports emerging artists. It is important to consider at what moment in the artist's career this Commission will be delivered. The Commission should help artists reach the next stage of their development.
Jury Vote
The Jury Vote consists of two rounds. In the first round, Rhizome staff, in collaboration with outside jurors, narrows the commissions pool down to fifty finalists. In the second round, the jurors will discuss the group and cast a final vote (in private) that will determine the winning projects. Please note that we reserve the right to change the process at any point if we feel changes are necessary to ensure the privacy, fairness, and feasibility of the process.
The Rhizome community play a critical role in the Commissions process. Members are eligible to cast their vote on proposals from a diverse group of artists. The comment fields below each proposal allow members to discuss. Thus, artists will get more from the process than just simply a chance to receive an award and, Rhizome members will have the opportunity to survey the field of practice. In order to participate in the Member Vote, your artwork has to be publicly viewable. If you don't want your artwork viewable by the public, simply *uncheck* the box reading "Enter proposal in member vote" at the bottom of the application form.
1. Approval Stage
During the first round, Rhizome members may vote Yes or No for as many or as few proposals as they wish, and can change their votes at any time throughout the duration of the approval stage. While members may vote for whatever proposal they choose, the interface will encourage them to review proposals with the least number of votes, in order to even the total number of votes received by proposals.
No member is required to review all the proposals. However, the more proposals you vote for, the more influence you will have over which proposals proceed to the second round.
Members can vote on their own proposals, but we kindly ask that vote for other proposals as well.
At the end of the approval stage, proposals will be ranked by the percentage of Yes votes received. For example, a proposal with ten Yes votes will have a score of 100%, while a proposal with fifteen Yes votes and five No votes will have a score of 75%. The highest-scoring twenty-five proposals will move on to the ranking stage; this may be more than twenty-five in the event of ties.
Rhizome may review the proposals to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Call for Proposals.
2. Ranking Stage
In the second round, Rhizome members choose two Rhizome Commissions recipients from the pool of twenty-five or more finalists.
The results are determined by single transferable vote, also known as instant runoff voting. Each voter ranks the proposals from most favorite to least favorite. If a proposal has more than 50% of first-place votes after the initial tally, it becomes the winner. If not, the lowest-ranking proposal is removed from the list, and the votes are automatically tallied again.
Rhizome members are allowed to cast one vote per cycle, regardless of how many valid memberships they may have. We reserve the right to eliminate votes if we have reason to believe that they come from a member who is voting with more than one membership. Members who have submitted proposals are welcome to vote.
For example: Five voters have to choose one winning proposal from candidates a, b, c, and d. They vote as follows:
| Maximilian | abc |
| Lukas | acb |
| Niklas | bca |
| Jurgen | bac |
| Hans | cab |
When the voting is complete, a has 2 votes, b has 2, and c has 1. Nobody has a majority, so we remove the least popular candidate, c, making Hans' vote effectively "ab". Now a gets 3 votes and b gets 2. The winner is a.
For more information on this voting method, refer to the Wikipedia entry on Instant-runoff voting
We encourage and expect open discussion of the proposals at all phases of the process, both on Rhizome and elsewhere online. We hope that this discussion will be respectful and considerate of all the artists involved.
Please email Zoe Salditch at zoe.salditch@rhizome.org with any questions, comments, or suggestions.
