Image of Amadou Bamba on a sidewalk shop selling hubcaps near the Great Mosque of Dakar. Photograph by Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, 1994.

ICONS: A Call For Entries

Background

The dictionary definition of the word ICON encompasses a broad cultural and historic swath, from religious practices reaching back thousands of years to contemporary computer language:

An important and enduring symbol; one who is the object of great attention and devotion; an idol; a portrait; an image of a holy person; a small symbolic picture representing a concept in an electronic graphical user interface; a statue; a realistic description in writing; a computer programming language, a sign with some factor in common with the object it represents…

We invite you to express, define or create your definition of the concept of icon for the CANVAS gallery at Krannert Art Museum.

Categories of Works

Type 0: Non-electronic (including sculpture, works on paper, canvas, mixed-media, photo, etc.)

Type 1: Electronic (including cpu-driven or not, interactive or non-interactive 2D, 3D, time-based art)

Type 2: CAVE-based Virtual Worlds created with KAMScript (a free artist's tool available at http://www.canvas.uiuc.edu/KAMScript) VRML is also accepted.

Our Open Source Art-making Program

Emphasis on this exhibition is placed on user-created virtual worlds in our CANVAS (3D CAVE). We freely distribute an easy-to-use OPEN SOURCE tool which will allow artists (like you) to create a virtual world in CANVAS. The software is entitled KAMScript and is available with instructions and tutorials at http://www.canvas.uiuc.edu/KAMScript. With KAMScript, you can create a virtual world using Photoshop and a simple text editor.

Deadlines

Entries will be accepted from August 1 to September 28, 2006. Judging of entries will begin in October 10th. Winning entries will be on view in the CANVAS gallery October 27 through December 31, 2006.

To Submit

Please email rose2000 at Uiuc.edu to submit files for entry. If you have something which is not a file, email rose2000 at uiuc.edu to coordinate.

Jury and Judging Criteria

Judith Fox, Visiting Curator, Krannert Art Museum
Joseph Squier, Professor of Art & Design at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Nan Goggin, Professor of Art & Design at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Ryan Griffis , Assistant Professor of Art & Design at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

In selecting the works that will be shown the jury will consider the interest and originality of the ideas in the piece and the embrace and creative use of the technical capabilities of the CANVAS.

Funding

The CANVAS gallery is supported and funded by the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, Champaign. The CANVAS and Syzygy software was created by the Integrated Systems Laboratory (ISL; http://www.isl.uiuc.edu) at the Beckman Institute.

This project is a companion installation with A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal, organized and produced by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, and curated by Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts and Dr. Allen F. Roberts in collaboration with Senegalese community leaders and artists in both Dakar and Los Angeles.