Rhizome is pleased to announce the first open call for artworks to be considered for accession to the newly revamped Rhizome ArtBase.

The Artbase is our key archive of born-digital art, initiated in 1999. Accepting open submissions which were lightly moderated, the ArtBase grew over the years to hold more than 2,200 artworks. The ArtBase provides long-term, free public access to born-digital artworks and related information. It isn’t an art collection—artists retain copyright of works in the ArtBase, and may sell or donate them to private collections (see the annotated Artist Agreement for more information). After several years of research and development, the ArtBase relaunched in April, 2021 featuring new infrastructure, improved metadata and presentation, and a new accessioning process.

As a part of this new accessioning process, Rhizome will run a series of themed open calls for artwork submissions to the ArtBase. The first theme is Executable Poetry, for which we invite submissions from artists who explore computation as a tool for poetic composition or decomposition. Accepted artworks could include generative writing, expressive bots, poetic re-interpretations of computer code, hypertext poems, or data-driven poetry. 

Submissions will be reviewed by a jury consisting of Celine Wong Katzman, Web Manager at Rhizome, independent curator, and co-organizer at the School for Poetic Computation; Allison Parrish, a computer programmer, poet, educator and game designer and Assistant Professor at NYU; Ramsey Nasser, a computer scientist, game designer, and educator based in Brooklyn; and manuel arturo abreu, a non-disciplinary artist and author of List of Consonants (2015), transtrender (2016, out of print), and Incalculable Loss (2018). 

Accession will be made based on artistic merit as interpreted by the jury; relevance to the ArtBase collection; and feasibility of archiving. In addition, Rhizome will place particular emphasis on accessioning artworks that represent forms of practice, political subjectivities, and communities previously omitted from the ArtBase.

Artists may submit one new or existing work to be considered for accession to the ArtBase. An artist who is a member of a collective may submit work by the collective in addition to work authored solely by them. Artworks must have been completed between 2016 and the date of submission. Submissions will be open until Wednesday, September 8 at 11:59pm. Artists will be notified about the status of their submission by October 15. 

Submit using this form. Please direct any questions to info@rhizome.org.

Update 10/12/21: Because we received so many high quality submissions, the review process is taking longer than expected. We have extended the artist notification date to November 9, 2021. Thank you for your patience!

^{Cover Image: Claude Closky, Do You Want Love or Lust? (2001). Courtesy of the artist.}