CALL FOR PROJECTS - TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES AWARD

// CALL FOR PROJECTS
// TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES AWARD
// Electronic Arts and Video Festival Transitio_mx 02
// Deadline: July 27th, 2007

http://transitiomx.net

granted by the US-Mexico Foundation for Culture, Inc.
Fomento Educacional, A.C. and
Fundacion BBVA Bancomer


TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES
The configuration of transnational communities corresponds to the continuous and increasing flow of people, goods, technology and information. In the context of this exchange, social networks are conformed linking daily and permanently the origin communities with the destination ones, creating social pluri-local and inter-cultural spaces.

In the specific case of the Mexico-United States relation, the migratory phenomenon constitutes a central inexhaustible subject in the territorial displacements debate. The Transnational Communities Award sets out to explore artistic, cultural and social articulation projects that take place in virtual space, the arena in which the global and the local converge.


GUIDELINES
The award will recognize transnational communities that link Mexico and the United States and that have been able to translate their presence onto the Internet, thus recreating their social dynamics through the web, shortening geographic distances, and transcending cultural conflicts by innovation. The emphasis of the award is set on digital projects that creatively use the technological and conceptual tools available in the net to improve the communitarian communication and interaction channels, giving rise to online spaces in which common stories and practices are shared.

The Transnational Communities Award is directed towards artistic, cultural and social projects for which the Internet is a necessary tool to express and present diverse visions of a changing world. Special consideration will be given to such projects that are committed to extend the access to production and distribution of contents in the Internet and that prioritize the horizontal communication among their members, setting into practice the culture of participation that defines the new generation of digital technologies by becoming virtual platforms of collaboration and collective development.


PARTICIPATION CRITERIA
I. The call is open to individuals, groups, associations, organizations and institutions that develop communitarian projects of a cultural, artistic and social character by using media convergence to create new social narratives that respond to transnational issues. Proposals working in the following formats will be accepted, as long as they use the internet as their main communication and interaction medium: video (communitarian video, documentary, videoart, video clip, videomails, soap operas, etc.), net.art, civil journalism, digital communities, online forums, weblogs, social networks, online videogames, online artistic collaboration projects, electronic literature, digital narrative, musical collaborations, communitarian radio, and pod casts, among others.

Special attention will be given to projects that tackle subjects related to identity, the borders, diversity, diasporas and hybridizations, as well as those which resort to the collective intelligence and creativity to generate open source tools, giving place to open contents and distribution.

II. Projects that work with the following tools, among others, will be able to participate:

Social Software

Web 2.0 Applications

System of social networks

Development of open source tools for creative collaboration

III. It will be possible to participate with up to 3 projects.

IV. The projects will have to be registered by their author. In case that the project has been made by a group, it will have to designate a representative.

V. The official languages of the award will be Spanish and English.

VI. Participation in this award implies the authorization to the National Center for the Arts to present the work within the framework of the Festival; and the authors grant permission to use images of the work for diffusion and dissemination of the event, according to the Federal Copyright Law. The rights of the work remain the sole property of the author.

VII. Participants release all announcing institutions of any controversy regarding copyright matters that the work in competition may lead to.

VIII. Decisions made by the Committee and the international Jury will be unquestionable.

IX. Participants accept the conditions set on this call. The Planning Council of the Festival will solve any case not foreseen earlier.

ELEGIBILITY CRITERIA

X. The projects will be pre-selected by a Committee that will evaluate all submitted works and decide if they are suitable to continue to the second and last stage.

XI. Such works chosen to go on to the final selection will be published in a national circulation newspaper and on the Festival’s webpage, http://transitiomx.net, on August 19th, 2007.

XII. The jury’s recognition will be given to projects that:

a) their activity, pertinence, and vitality is evident at first sight

b) give priority to the horizontal participation of their members

c) offer the possibility of inclusion and participation for agents external to the community

d) present effectiveness and functionality characteristics in dialogic processes

e) companies with exclusive profit-making aims are excluded

APPLICATION

XIII. All the proposals must be presented as an Internet website

XIV. Proposals will be received from the publication of this announcement and until 6 p.m. (GMT -6) on July 27th, 2007. The date of shipment will be taken into account as long as the shipment is done using express mail and not ordinary service.

XV. DOCUMENTATION:

To obtain the participation guidelines for the award; as well as the Registration Form and all the information on the documentation that must be included, please check Festival’s webpage http://transitiomx.net or the Multimedia Center webpage http://cmm.cenart.gob.mx



PRIZE
Finalist works will be evaluated by an international jury who will determine the following prizes:

a first prize of 3,500.00 U.S. dollars
the honorary mentions considered pertinent

The prizes and mentions will be presented and awarded within the Festival framework.


For further information and document delivery, please refer to:
Centro Nacional de las Artes
Centro Multimedia
Avenida Rio Churubusco 79, Colonia Country Club,
C. P. 04220, Coyoacan, Mexico, D. F.
Office hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Contact: Ana Villa, by phone 1253 9400 Ext. 1290 or by email:
[email protected]
http://www.transitiomx.net

CONTACTS
Mariana Delgado
Communication and Public Affairs Coordinator
US-Mexico Foundation for Culture, Inc.
Col. Juarez
06600 Mexico, DF.
Ph. (52 55) 5535 6735
Fax. (52 55) 5566 8071
mariana [at] contactocultural.org
www.contactocultural.org