Presented by Trinity Square Video and Dames Making Games
Supported by EQ Bank

DEADLINE: May 31, 2020 June 14, 2020

Submissions are now closed.

Trinity Square Video and Dames Making Games are seeking submissions for the annual Themed Commission: a program inviting creative practitioners to produce or workshop new projects in a collaborative environment of like-minded artists.

Titled Remote Realities, this year’s theme will focus on how one plays in isolation; how isolation shapes our preferences in play and what reactions to games are being cultivated in this current reality. This situation encourages and inspires us to invent or reinvent activities to provide entertainment while in isolation. We are interested in these newly founded feelings towards play and the cravings and rewards that come from these re/inventions. Some of us have reached our bandwidth for screens and online communication, while others are experimenting with new avenues for play.

In times of isolation and separation we find the ways we play games inverted, with digital games needing to recreate the physical spaces we crave to occupy, and analog games that thrive in physical spaces being moved into digital forms of play. How can the shifting of both digital and analog game forms create new modes of transmedial play? In exploring the respective strengths of digital and analog game design, and our present restrictions, how can we rethink what interaction and connection look like through games? Remote Realities asks, how can a game contribute to the health of your current experience and how would you like to play within material or virtual settings?

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Proposed projects might address (but are not limited to) the following questions:

• What can play in analog games look like now despite not being able to be physically present to play with one another? How can we design for impactful experiences across distances?
• What are you craving and how can play provide relief?
• What are the gatekeepers and obstacles preventing engagement?
• How can commercial tools traditionally used in game-creation (both digital and tactile) be repurposed for art/design practice?
• How can gaming encourage relatability, intimacy, healing, and community building?
• What is included in the intersection of gaming, art, and design? And how can interdisciplinary modes of creation develop a deeper understanding of society?
• How can games be acts of care? How through playing them can we break through isolation to connect with one another?
• How can gaming offer a vehicle for diverse perspectives and representations?
• How can games be used to facilitate moments of mindfulness and introspection? How can games be used to open up a dialogue with ourselves?
• How can we use play to be spatially transformative, altering the spaces we occupy both digitally and physically?

Each selected artist will be given access to Trinity Square Video and Dames Makes Games production and post-production equipment and facilities. Participating artists are expected to participate in group critiques and planning sessions, and will be expected to complete their project (or a draft of their project) in time for a group presentation in October 2020.

Submissions will be reviewed by the Trinity Square Video and Dames Making Games Programming Committees who will make selections based on the proposed project’s innovation, feasibility, aesthetic potential, and conceptual merits.

Selected artists receive:

• $1000 credit in production equipment rentals for the creation of their projects;
• Access to the Trinity Square Video Media Lab Summer 2020;
• For analog designers: print, fabrication, or prototyping consultation and financial support equivalent to $1000, access to DMG’s copy machine and RPG library;
• Trinity Square Video membership or renewal;
• DMG membership or renewal;
• $500 cash in production support;
• Participation in a group presentation with CARFAC fees (September, 2020)

While each project is created separately, the artists will participate in group-critiques of works-in-progress, where they can receive peer-support and feedback.

Artist resources being offered are with the expectation of the ability to access the physical spaces needed to work on your games. In the event that work and delivery of projects needs to be remote we will work with each artist to ensure they have the resources and support they need to complete their projects remotely.