Call for artists working with AI

Theme “Our World is Beautiful”

Send a PDF with min. 20 images

Per email to PWA.AI.Call@gmail.com

Selected projects will be exhibited in the framework of Photobook Week Aarhus 2023

Fee: 30€, which can be used as a voucher for workshops on AI

New Deadline: Oct. 11, 2023.

Check out our AI workshops at a discounted price for all participants.

Photobook Week Aarhus launches a world-wide call for artists who use artificial intelligence for storytelling in a photographic context. We are looking for series, books, dummies, and projects with a minimum of 20 images and a narrative structure based on the power of visual literacy.

The theme of the Call (which is connected to this year’s festival) is “Our World is Beautiful”, a celebration of what is worth saving in times of trouble. We do not deny that our planet is suffering from our actions and things are getting worse every day.  Still, we propose a fresh look and encourage artists to use the photographic language and the new possibilities of artificial intelligence to motivate us for radical change. Please send us a body of work that has been created using AI tools to showcase the beauty of our environment, revisit landscape photography, and reframe the depiction of nature. We are not interested in technical details but will ask the creators to explain which techniques they have used and why. The title of the call is a reference to the seminal photobook by Albert Renger-Patzsch published 95 years ago and aimed to inspire a constructive dialogue around nature and technology.

We believe that the heated discussions around both Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change will benefit from a new wave of optimism therefore want to encourage artists to shape this new discourse.

An international jury will select a shortlist and a winner, to be showcased at Photobook Week Aarhus 2023.

The Call “Our World is Beautiful” is open to all artists or collectives of artists aged over 18, from any part of the world, as long as they are human. The call is intended to showcase new “photographic” projects completed using generative AI tools.

These tools can be third-party text-to-image or image-to-image generator platforms, your own models, codes and/or data sets, open-source models, codes and/or data sets, or a combination of these. Human intervention is allowed in any part of the process, but the nature of the work should be clearly based on the use of Generative AI Tools. The technique should be described in the participation form in a way that is understandable for a general public interested in art and technology.

The Call closes at 11:59pm CST on Oct. 9, 2023. Entries must be submitted via email to the following address (only): PWA-AI@gmail.com. Each participant may submit only one entry.

The participation fee is 30€, and will be paid once the entry has been accepted by the organizing party. We reserve the right to reject projects that do not fulfill our ethical guidelines or clearly conflict with the positive spirit of the event.

Projects can be already started ones, but have to be both previously unpublished and not entered in any similar competition, in the same form.

The entry will be a PDF of max. 20MB, and will start with a title page, followed by short description of the project, its intention and the workflow. This description is very important for us, and forms part of the project. Please do not exceed 300 words! The core of the entry will be a series of at least 20 images in a specified order and design that uses the power of visual storytelling based on the power of the photographic language.

The judging panel will assess the entries with regard to the following criteria:

1. concept and reference to the theme (not Renger-Patzsch’s original book, but a fresh look at the beauty of nature),

2. the originality of the images, the editing, and presentation of the project,

3. level of innovation used in the process to generate the artwork, which includes the originality of the workflow.

A pre-selection committee has been established by PWA and consists of David Fathi, Steve Braun, Asta Nyyssonen, and Moritz Neumüller. Secretary: Anna Brix Nielsen. They will assess all the entries and select a shortlist of projects. These shortlisted projects will be exhibited at the festival and will be presented to the final jury who will select three winners according to the rules of this award. The shortlist will be made public on our website on October 14, 2023.

The prizes are honorary. There will be a first, second and third prize. The jury may also decide on the amount of Honorable Mentions. All winners will be announced on the Photobook Week Aarhus 2023 website, social media and press releases.

The winners will be chosen by an international jury comprised by Boris Eldagsen, Andreas Müller-Pohle, Asta Nyyssonen, Jesper Rasmussen, Signe Klejs, and Anne Elisabeth Toft, Secretary (with vote): Moritz Neumüller.

Jury members will have access to all the documentation submitted by entrants if they request it from PWA during the course of their deliberations. Each jury member will have a voice and vote. A member of PWA will act as secretary of the jury. The jury reserves the right to declare the competition null and void if the entries are not considered to be of sufficient quality or do not conform to the specifications stipulated here.

The jury can take any initiatives it considers necessary to check the information presented by entrants. The jury can withdraw the status of winner from the selected artists and declare new winners in the case that participants do not accept the prize.

Decisions of the judging panel and the organizing team are final, and no discussions with regards to the selection of finalists, winners or the showcasing of the work will be entered into by PWA or any of the judges.

The shortlisted participants and winners will be announced before October 24, and the showcasing of the works will take place in the framework of Photobook Week Aarhus, Nov. 2 – 5. PWA may also display reproductions or online versions of the selected works in other locations and formats as part of PWA 2023 (for example, a screen projection or a poster) and all kinds of online media.

PWA decides on the way the works will be displayed, in a close dialogue with the participants, but can remove any or all of the selected works at any time, in its absolute discretion, especially if concerns about the fulfillment of the judgment criteria or ethical guidelines should arise.

If PWA receives an enquiry about the purchase of a work displayed, we will notify the  artists and request their permission to share their contact details with the enquirer.

Intellectual Property, Ethics and Moral Rights

The entrants will be responsible for fulfilling the current legal requirements on intellectual property and on the rights to the image itself, and must ensure that third parties cannot claim any right with regard to the project entered into the competition. Whatever the case, entrants will be responsible for any claims arising due to image rights or from third parties. On PWA’s request, participants have to provide evidence of such ownership or rights.

All entries are protected by Intellectual Property Rights, and participants grant to PWA a non-exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, transferable (including sublicensable) license to reproduce (in whole or in part), communicate to the public and otherwise use the copyright in the entry, for the purposes of the exhibition and dissemination of the Call, including, but not limited to, on the PWA website and social media accounts.

PWA will not be able to prevent visitors to the exhibition from taking photographs and videos of the works on display for personal and non-commercial use, and will not be responsible for such unauthorised photography and/or filming or for a visitor’s subsequent use of such photographs or footage for personal and non-commercial use.

The participation fee is 30€. It will be paid after the participant has sent his or her project, but before the selection process. This payment has a double function: It helps us organize the Call and the exhibition of the shortlisted candidates. And it can be used as a voucher for the AI seminars and workshops we offer in the framework of the festival. This means that paying participants will get a discount for these events, be they online or onsite. It also means that your money is not lost, in case you are not among the selected view, but you can participate in an educational program that helps you strengthen your skills in the field of photography, photobooks and Artificial Intelligence. The events and the discounts will be clearly communicated on our website.

All participants will fill out a form with their contact data and submit explanations about them and the submitted projects. This personal data shall be:

1. processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject;

2. collected only for the specified, explicit and legitimate purpose of the Call and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes.

Participants acknowledge that these Rules may be changed and updated by PWA if necessary. Where such a change is made to the Terms and Conditions, we will publish the updated Rules on our website. You understand and agree that by submitting your entry, you consent to these Terms and any changes or updates to them.

Get started today: Produce your project responding to the theme “Our World is Beautiful”, and send us a PDF with min. 20 images per email to PWA.AI.Call@gmail.com. We will have a look at your work and send you a link to the participation form and for the payment. Once you have paid, you may inscribe yourself to as many workshops as you like, using the participation fee as a voucher for a discount. Remember that the seminars are likely to fill up quickly, on a first come, first serve basis. In other words, it is recommended to send your work before the deadline, which is Oct. 11, at 23:59h. The shortlist of projects and the 3 winners will be announced shortly after the jury decision, in any case before October 24. We would be happy to see you at the festival, which takes place from Nov. 2 – 5 in Aarhus, Denmark. Of course, you will also find the shortlisted projects and the winners on our website and social media.