[artinfo] Touch open call photo contest

[Art & Education]

Re:Touch expanded surfaces in smartphone photography

Freie Universität Berlin

Application deadline: March 6, 2023

Winner Announcement : March 30, 2023

Freie Universität Berlin (FU-Berlin) supported by 
Kulturprojekte Berlin. Contest start: January 20, 
2023
Application deadline: March 6, 2023.
To apply, please visit  website.
https://re-touch-photocontest.com/
Email: info at re-touch-photocontest.com.

On the occasion of EMOP Berlin - European Month 
of Photography 2023, professional and amateur 
photographers are invited to submit images 
exploring expanded surfaces of digital 
photographic images. Digital images on screens 
and smartphones play a significant role in our 
everyday social lives, media and networks, while 
being underestimated as photographic practices 
with a potential for critical agency and 
aesthetics.

The contest Re:Touch intends to create an 
opportunity to engage both, critically and 
artistically, in digital smartphone photography, 
its processing of images and its effects on 
society and (virtual) realities. Key questions 
are:

How can smartphone photography create new 
visualizations to restore relationships with 
ourselves, each other and the world within and 
beyond screens? What affective relationships and 
resiliencies may emerge from capturing phenomena 
beyond the established visual codes of social 
media systems? Which strategies emphasize 
decolonial and/or queer constructions of identity 
as socially engaged practices? How might a 
critique of digital image processing be 
documented? How do we encounter non-human 
photographs in a virtual environment? How do 
digital errors and glitches relate to digital 
infrastructures of power relations?

We are looking for photographs employing the 
smartphone as a starting point for a Re:Touch. 
Re:Touch something you believe you have lost 
touch with in a snapshot. Re:Touch something that 
needs a critical intervention for change in a 
screenshot. Re:Touch with an experimental digital 
photographic practice to overcome new and old 
barriers and boundaries of connectivity.

Participants may submit one digital image or a 
series of up to five digital images on the theme 
of Re:Touch. Winners will be selected by an 
independent jury and receive 1,500 EUR for first 
prize, 700 EUR for second prize and 300 EUR for 
third prize. Additionally, the works of the 
winners, as well as special mentions, will be 
published on our website. Winners will be 
announced on March 30, 2023. Entries may be 
submitted via an online form on the website.

...........

MA Culture and Media Management at Freie Universität Berlin
The practice-oriented master's program at Freie 
Universität Berlin explores knowledge resources 
and methods for application in cultural and media 
management. Above all, the program familiarizes 
students with the intersections between art, 
culture and media studies. Synergies between 
theory and practice are particularly encouraged, 
as is an engagement with questions and 
methodologies drawn from different sciences, 
cultural institutions, and the arts. Students are 
frequently given opportunities for independent, 
interdisciplinary project development, 
implementation, and quality assurance across 
various professional fields. Our collaborators 
include: Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche 
Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Hamburger Bahnhof - 
Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin, Haus der Kulturen 
der Welt (HKW) and Kestner Gesellschaft. We also 
collaborate via metaLAB (at) FU, Freie 
Universität Berlin, an international research 
initiative with metaLAB (at) Harvard, Harvard 
University. metaLAB (at) FU operates as a 
transdisciplinary lab and as an experimental 
platform exploring new digital and creative 
knowledge practices in the scientific, cultural 
and social realm.