VECTOR GAME ART FESTIVAL

Vector Game + Art Convergence, Canada’s first ever festival focusing on video game art, invites you to submit to its inaugural festival.

February 21-24, 2013
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
InterAccess
Propeller
Bento Miso

Contact: [email protected]

The practices within game art are varied and diverse, as such this open call will be open to artists working within many creative contexts. Vector is seeking works that critically address the politics, technologies, representations and aesthetics of video games. We are seeking works from artists in all stages of their creative careers from emerging to established.


Works For Exhibition.
Works of all media will be considered for an exhibition surveying a spectrum of practices within game art. Video for installation, interactive works of new media, print media, sculpture, textile and more. More than simply fan artworks based on games and gaming culture, we are seeking works that challenge assumptions about gaming writ large. Formal investigations on the medium will be considered as well as works that push the form of ‘games’ into the experimental.


Film/ Video Works for Screening Series.
We are looking for work that experiments with the concept of machinima to produce engaging films and videos. In other words, the work should make use of video game footage or video game engines in some capacity. Narrative work will be considered, but the work should push the boundaries of traditional/classical Hollywood narrative cinema in some capacity. Due to programming restrictions we are looking for work under 20 minutes, however, please contact us if you have made a longer work and and feel that it fits our mandate.


Written Works for Catalogue.
As a print companion to the Festival and Symposium, our print catalogue will house critical perspectives on game art, the culture of games as well as the medium itself. Academic Essays, articles and small scale printed works will be accepted, in order to incorporate a variety of perspectives. Written works should be no longer than 1750 words, and may be discussions of single works of art, surveys of creative practices based on games, and critical works addressing the politics, aesthetics and representations within gaming and its orbiting cultures.
Written works may be submitted as 250 word abstracts. Those accepted will be notified within a few weeks of submission in order to give facilitate a timely turn around of the final article submissions. This ensures that Vector will have enough time to print the catalogue prior to the festival.

Artist Multiples for Pop-Up Shop.
The Vector Pop-Up Shop will be housed in the front section of Propeller (984 Queen St. W.) for the duration of the festival.

What’s a Pop-Up Shop? It’s exactly what it sounds like! A small shop that will ‘pop-up’ for the four days of Vector, and will then be gone.
The Vector Pop-Up Shop will feature a variety of affordable prints, DVDs, audio CDs, ROMs, zines, t-shirts, crafts and more by artists working in a variety of media. The focus will be on limited run (multiples), unique works of collectible art that festival visitors and passers by can purchase. Vector will take 20% of all proceeds, to cover administration costs, with the rest being sent back to the artists.


How to Submit.
** Please visit http://vectorgameartfest.tumblr.com/callforsubmissions to download the Submission Package.

** For video and audio works: for digital submission please supply links to samples of the work being submitted. If mailing please send CDs/DVDs to the address below.

** Photographic documentation of other works should be limited to no more than 10 images.

** All submissions must be sent to [email protected], with the subject heading “VECTOR SUBMISSION”, followed by the name of the stream you are submitting to: Screening, Exhibition, Catalogue, Pop-Up Shop.

**Works may also be mailed to:
Vector c/o Skot Deeming
531 Quebec Ave
Toronto Ontario Canada
M6P 2V6

** Please consolidate all files into a .zip folder titled Vector Submission.

** DEADLINE: 5pm on December 10th,2012.

** Final Programming announcements and acceptance letters will be sent out on January 1st 2013.