This is specifically a digital art prize, welcoming all forms of digitally created art works including photo-montage and manipulation to iPad drawings, interactive art, web art, digital sculpture, and animation. The only requirement is that the creative process involve a digital device as well as commercial or originally-coded software.

A Stranger to Words by Meng Chih Chiang

The prize is a celebration of the digital genre and the winner will be selected by a panel of distinguished judges in this field.  The event will be further celebrated with the tour which will include workshops and seminars on digital art in order to engage with local digital artists and the public.  As of spring 2015, the Lumen Prize has staged 14 shows around the world, including venues in China, the US, and across Europe. For more about the prize and tour, please see our FAQs.

The Platform of Suffering by Seok-Jun Ha

Garden by Rui Hu

A not-for-profit organisation, Lumen is honoured to be working with a range of education and art partners around the world including the Computer Arts Society,  New York Institute of Technology; Cardiff School of Art and Design; the School of Visual Arts, NYC; and London’s Camberwell School of Arts MA Fine Art Digital programme, CADW, the heritage arm of the Welsh Government and Swansea School of Management.

If you are interested applying visit their website or for updates about the tour you can sign up to the newsletter.

Call for entries opens: 15 March

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I THINK I by Jonathan Long

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David Lemm is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Edinburgh. He studied animation at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee, graduating in 2006. Here he talks residencies, maps and printmaking.

I worked on freelance animation/music video projects after Art School, and began developing my practice in other areas; illustration, printmaking and more experimental work. I still do animation, mainly music related and some commercial stuff. I’ve recently made videos for Miaoux Miaoux and Hobbes music, but enjoy working on a broad range of projects including commissions, residencies and exhibitions.

I recently moved to a studio down in Leith. It’s early days, so I haven’t really settled yet or got into the routine of going somewhere different to work. I used to have a studio/exhibition space in Leith, so it’s nice to be based in this part of town again. I’m currently doing a residency at House of Illustration in London, which means I’m down there for a bit each month. Every day is different at the moment!

New Land

Rites

I use a lot of different tools, depending on the project. I always start with sketches and lots of notes, and then develop ideas digitally whilst keeping analogue processes in mind. I’ve been screen-printing a lot over the last few years, and had my first solo exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers in January. That body of work was a development of a process where I screen-printed directly onto found maps/charts. I layer graphic elements against the original markings, leaving it unclear what marks are original and what are my interventions. The resulting opportunity for interpretation and subjective analysis is a key interest and intention in my work. By printing on maps/charts I aim to create a contrast between the physical mapping/organisation of what we define as real with the unknown, unrealised and imagined.

Shards

I’m currently thinking a lot more about drawing and other hand-made approaches, so that may become more prominent in future work. I did a paper cut-out animation workshop with Atlas Arts on Skye for BBC Ten pieces and I really enjoyed that process. I’ve been interested in maps/diagrams since I was a child and they inspired a recent residency project on Eigg commissioned by lifeoffthegrid.net with The Bothy project. The residency aimed to explore maps as tools of way finding, instruments of organisation but also as material artefacts and repositories of meaning. I was particularly keen to explore the idea that maps fundamentally describe reality through simple abstract lines, forms and motifs, and to consider how experience of a space/place can be represented visually. The outcomes from the residency were recently shortlisted for Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards.

Bothy – Eigg series

Alec – Eigg series

The House of Illustration residency is for 6 months, with an exhibition of my outcomes in January. There is also a work in progress exhibition between 5-8 November and I’m hosting a couple of events/workshops in September and October. Other than that, I’m excited to be working with Atlas Arts again and will be heading up to Skye to work on a project which should be launched near the end of the year.

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Artist profiles delve into the psyche of the artist talking about daily life, inspiration & art. Read more profiles here. 

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The second Animate OPEN exhibition call for entries and commission opportunity was recently announced by Animate Projects and QUAD. These are detailed separately below.

Animate OPEN is an international call for experimental single channel work that relates to the theme Parts & Labour: emphasising the craft – analogue and digital – of contemporary creative animation practice. Selected works will be presented in a gallery, in cinemas and online.

The Animate OPEN is for complete works by UK and international artists, animators and filmmakers, produced since January 2014.

Up to 20 works will be chosen for gallery exhibition at QUAD from 28 November 2015 – 24 January 2016, for online exhibition and for a cinema programme as part of Move It, a season of British and international animation, touring the UK in 2016.

Prizes up for grabs include a jury award of £1,500 and an audience prize of £750 will be selected by visitors to the exhibition at QUAD. Artist fees will be given for works included in the gallery exhibition and UK tour.

A small submission fee applies. For application details and more information, please visit here.

Deadline: 3 September

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The Parts & Labour commission call for proposals is for a UK based artist to make on-site and moving image work that employs animation, drawing and digital technologies, for exhibition in QUAD’s Extra Gallery Spaces in Derby and online. The commissioned work will be presented alongside, and reflect the themes of, the Animate OPEN: Parts & Labour, opening at QUAD on 28 November 2015.

The selected artist will be based in QUAD’s dedicated studio space, with access to QUAD facilities. The fee is £3000 inclusive of VAT plus £1000 towards material and production costs and £250 for delivery of a workshop and talk. There will be some additional support towards travel and accommodation. The artist will receive curatorial support from the commissioning partners and assistance with installation at QUAD from the gallery team.

For guidelines and to find out how to apply, please visit here.

Deadline: 22 July

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MonstroCity by Edinburgh based animator and graphic designer Dan Castro.

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Valentina’s Dream directed by John Panton (aka Meat Bingo).

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La Bestia by Milan based illustrator and graphic designer Alessandro Bergomi and Francesco Baldina.

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MOSITION by Korean animation director, graphic designer & University professor, Jun Seo Hahm.

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Gerascophobia is a short animation by GSA alumna Shuangshuang Hao, an illustrator and animator based in Glasgow.

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Ugly As Old Onions is a short film commissioned for the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2013 made by Edinburgh based artist Carla J Easton in collaboration with poet Michael Pedersen and filmmaker Adam Foy.

For more details about this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, see this featured event.

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