Check out this interesting call for entries from Sustainable Phosphorus Summit:
graphic element by Jacob Sahertian
Sustainable Phosphorus Summit – call to artists. The School of Life Sciences (SOLS) at Arizona State University announces a call for entries for a juried exhibition and art competition to be held at the Desert Botanical Garden in collaboration with the “Sustainable Phosphorus (P) Summit: phosphorus, food, and our future” in February, 2011 in Tempe, Arizona.
Artists are encouraged to collaborate with scientists participating in the conference to communicate ideas about phosphorus sustainability to the broader community. Interested artists will be paired with scientists who study various aspects of this issue, ranging from biology and agronomy to the social, political, and economic implications of phosphorus pollution and phosphorus scarcity. Artists wishing to be paired with a scientist for collaboration should contact Lisa for more information. Artists may also submit work created independently, as long as their artwork fits with the overall goal of the exhibition, which is to communicate ideas surrounding phosphorus sustainability to a broad community, including non-scientists.
Deadline for entries: January 1, 2011.
Eligibility: Artists working in any medium are welcome, as long as it achieves the goal of communicating ideas about phosphorus sustainability to a broader audience of non-scientists. Work will be judged by a panel of artists and scientists based on how well it achieves this goal.
Submission process: 1-3 digital images of the completed work (no more than 10 MB each) should be emailed by the January 1st deadline. Artists are also welcome (but not required) to submit a statement of up to 500 words describing their work and the scientific ideas they are aiming to communicate. Artists will be notified of their acceptance into the exhibition by January 7th and are responsible for shipping/transit of their artwork to and from the exhibit.
Prizes: First place: $500, Second place: $250, Third place: $150. Winners will be notified by February 6th, 2011.
For updated information, visit the conference website.
What is phosphorus sustainability? Phosphorus is in every living thing – it’s part of our genetic code and helps give us energy. Without it, we could not grow our food nor build our bones. It’s an essential nutrient to all life. Yet our current use of it relies on mining it from the earth to make into a fertilizer and then letting this fertilizer leach into our waterways and act as a pollutant. But this is only part of the story; parts of the world are not even able to access enough fertilizer to grow their food, let alone let it be wasted away into rivers. Can we make phosphorus use more sustainable? The goal of the Sustainable P Summit is to find out. Links: Additional information on the scientific program of the Sustainable P Summit. Additional information on phosphorus sustainability.
