Submit Your Work
Interested in submitting your work? We are now considering proposals for our new site currently under development.
Artists have the opportunity to…
- Collaborate across different disciplines and mediums.
- Engage in creative dialogue with other artists.
- Showcase artwork for online discussion.
Our Process
We provide a platform for artists of all types to take part in creative dialogue. Groups consisting of one or more contributors from different disciplines and/or mediums engage in a share-and-response exchange, or dialogue, of original work. At the end of a dialogue, the works are collected into a series and published one entry per day on our website.
Here’s an example:
- Contributor 1 (Writer): Shares an original short piece of fiction with a photographer she’s collaborating with on a series;
- Contributor 2 (Photographer): Responds to the short piece of fiction with an original image entry related in concept, subject or theme;
- Contributor 1: Answers in turn to the provided image with a new piece of fiction, building on ideas beginning to develop as the series evolves from one entry to the next;
- This process continues between the paired contributors until the dialogue concludes (average series length: 6-10 total entries);
- After the contributors evaluate and refine their collected works, they submit the complete series to Pair Shaped for review and publication.
Guidelines & Recommendations
Guidelines:
- Artists from all disciplines and mediums are welcome;
- One or more individuals make up a group of artists;
- Every series will feature submission entries based in different disciplines and/or mediums by two groups of artists;
- Series consist of text, image, video, and/or audio entries formatted for online display;
- Members must stay within their chosen group throughout the creative development of a given series (i.e., members cannot change groups in the middle of a series);
- Groups cannot accept new members after work on a series has officially begun;
- Depending on the availability of other artists in our network, pairing options can be provided for contributors who do not have collaborators already chosen prior to the start of a series;
- All entries must be original work not previously featured in a printed publication, website or physical exhibition space.
Recommendations:
We provide the following entry length recommendations to help manage and focus the creative dialogue between groups of artists. Feel free to deviate and experiment if you find a different approach will produce a better series:
- 6-10 total entries per series
- 1000 word maximum for written entries
- 1 image submission per each photographic entry
- 5 minute length maximum for video and/or audio entries
How to Get Involved: Send Us Your Participation Request
1. Review Our Process and Guidelines & Recommendations (see above)
2. Write info@pairshaped.org with the following information:
- Names, email addresses and disciplines (e.g., creative fiction, photography, interpretative dance, etc.) of all artists expected to participate;
- Web addresses for online portfolios -or- single .pdf featuring samples of your past creative work:
—For photography, provide 5-10 images;
—For video and written/text-based work, provide 2-3 pieces;
—Note: If preparing a .pdf, please be sure to label each piece or portfolio link with the name of the corresponding artist;
- (If needed) Request for assistance to find possible collaborators;
- Desired start date for beginning your series.
3. Await response from Pair Shaped. We will get back to you as soon as possible with a decision regarding your request. We look forward to hearing from you!
Ready to Submit a Completed Series?
Once your series proposal (see section above) has been accepted and you have prepared a series for review, please read through the following before submitting your work:
Questions to consider:
- Does your series show formal and/or thematic development over the course of multiple entries?
- How do the disciplines and mediums employed in your series serve and enhance each other?
- Does your series follow our entry length recommendations? If not, why? How does the series benefit from adopting a different approach?
- Can you imagine additional entries? If so, how do they look, feel, read, and/or sound? This exercise will help you consider overall series structure and framing. Does the series still seem complete? Should something be added/removed?
File Preparation
- Please submit the collected series content as a .zip file or .pdf portfolio to info@pairshaped.org;
- Individual entries should be title/labeled with information detailing their placement in the series order —and— name of the artist responsible for the piece (e.g., ‘Entry 1_Jane Doe’);
- Acceptable file formats for media include:
Images: .jpg, .gif, .pdf
Videos: .flv, .wv, .mov
Audio: .mp3
Text documents: .doc, .pdf
Next Steps
Submitted work will enter a review and revision phase involving our team engaging with the artists responsible for the series. Launch dates for the series will be announced once the work is determined ready for publication.
All done? What’s your next series?…
Need more information? Please write info@pairshaped.org with any additional questions.
