Go Green with Corel

Protect the Earth! Use Corel software! Win money! That’s the message for Corel’s Go Green contest, which is awarding a video story about the environment with a Corel software package and digital video camera.

To enter, download some Corel free trial software and construct a video that is either about the environment or about Earth Day. Upload your video to Youtube before August 31, 2008, register it online and get as many of your friends to watch it. Winning video is the one with the highest views. Get cracking!

McFarlane Prize 2008 nomination callout

Web geeks ahoy! The McFarlane Prize recognises excellence in web design, and is open for nominations for 2008. Recognising accessability, usability, coding, clever design and cultural impact, the McFarlane Prize awards Australian-designed sites at the Web Directions South Conference this coming September (awards them with what I’m not quite sure…)

To enter, check out the entry conditions and fill out a nomination form before 31 August, 2008.

God. That’s a badly pixelated header.

It’s Out of Controller!!

Out of Controller is a cool upcoming exhibit showing a range of work based around Nintendo characters. NERD YAY! Artists are encouraged to use a variety of mediums and to show what our pixelated friends get up to when the Nintendo’s turned off. Plus, there is over $4000 in cash and prizes to be won. DUBBLE NERD YAY!!

Work will be displayed in Melbourne’s FAD Gallery from 10 – 27 September, 2008. More information and entry details can be viewed on the website.

Enter the land of Experimentopia!

Experimenta is a contemporary arts organisation who run the International Biennial of Media Art, entitled Experimentopia. They’re calling for international and Australian proposals for next year’s works, and are commissioning up to $6,000 each for new pieces, with preference towards interactive media. The aim is to create works that allow audiences to engage with, act out, inhabit and experience utopic/dystopic scenarios and environments.

Applying is free, and entries must be in by 25th July, 2008. Application forms and guidelines can be downloaded from the website.

iArts digital interactive arts

iArts is a new digital programming initiative hosted by ABC TV, producing content created in collaboration with Western Australian art people and digital content producers. All work will be published by ABC TV on their website with podcasts, vodcasts and TV shorts.

Western Australian artists, musicians, designers, art organisations and digital media producers and invited to join the program. Applications close 21 July, 2008. Guidelines are available on the ScreenWest website.

How to run a professional blog

Let’s face it – if you’re a designer, crafter or an artist with a blog you’re inevitably going to be wanting to pimp your skills. However, when you start going from personal blog to a professional folio blog, you need to carefully look at the way you present yourself and the way you interact with your readers and the rest of the world wide web.

Luckily, there’s a number of talented bloggers out there who have some tips to help you. As I come along more articles, I’ll add them to this post so it becomes EXTRA-helpful.

Nubby Twiglet has a number of posts on Business & Marketing, coming from her experience as a freelance designer.

• The benefits of folio blogs vs websites
• 13 steps to a successful blog-based business
• Choosing a business name
• The art of networking

Pip from Meet Me at Mikes has recently done a run of entries on how to maintain a craft blog, but they can be applied to pretty much any blog possible.

• How to start a craft blog
• How to market a craft blog
• How to make your blog look cuter
• How to have nice blog manners

Every Tuesday, Leni & Rose does a post on blogging tips & tricks. They also include step-by-step guides on how to customise your Blogger account, if that’s your processor of choice.

Other articles:

• Passive marketing for freelancers
• Build a killer online portfolio in 9 easy steps

 

Flippy floppy fun with Flip Festival

The Flip Animation Festival runs for 3 days in November across Wolverhampton and Birmingham in the UK, showcasing animated works from across the world. They’re currently calling for entries for this year’s programs, and are accepting any short animated films in any category, in 1 – 15 mins in length. They don’t accepts commercials though, so no ads. And you also need to have any copyright infringements cleared.

To enter, you’ll need to post a completed entry form and a preview of your work on VHS, DVD or CD. Entries close August 8, 2008.

Melbourne Fringe open registrations

The Melbourne Fringe Festival will be lifting it’s skirts and cancanning into town on the 24th September to 12 October 2008. The Frindge Festival is the largest annual celebration of independent arts in Victoria, with all events created entirely by the participating artists.

Registration for artist events has now opened and will close on 13 June 2008. Please note that even if you registered previous years, you’ll need to do it again.

Design is Kinky employment orgy

The good folks over at Design is Kinky have set up a new freelance employment network for visual artists to pimp their talents. Design is Kinky Connect allows approved artists to upload a folio of work, with their work details and hourly rates. Agencies and other companies can then search Design is Kinky Connect for illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, animators, and people who work in motion graphics and with Flash.

It’s absolutely free to submit your work, so you’ve got no excuse not to try.

Cultcha Shock!

…is the title of the new ABC1 series by Marcus Westbury, of Not Quite Art fame (okay, he’s spelt it “Culture” but I think he should consider slanging it up a bit to make it cooler with the kids). Filming and production hasn’t started yet, and Mr Westbury is still on the lookout for artists and the like who can contribute.

I started reading Culture Shock’s proposal, but had a minor brain explosion, so instead I’ll just post excerpts of it here. Please don’t ask me to decipher, I need a sit down instead.

“Picking up from the themes explored in Not Quite Art, Culture Shock takes the audience on an insightful and amusing journey through an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape – where the Internet and communications have given all of us a set of cultural choices and influences unimaginable even a decade ago.

Culture Shock finds an eclectic and amusing mix of artists, writers and musicians whose work has found their audiences through networks well outside the traditional Australian structures of cultural authority.

Over three episodes, Marcus Westbury takes us to meet Australian artists and creators exhibiting and performing internationally while remaining largely unknown in their own communities.

Culture Shock looks at the spectrum of specialist cultures and niche audiences unleashed globally by communications technology. With rapid change in art and cultural influences occurring all the time, this series is not about art that is dependent on technology but on the new cultural landscape that has grown up because of it.”

Ooookay, so if you know someone who is doing something along those lines, drop Marcus a line at his blog. You should also read the rest of his posts. They are very good.