User ID

Right. You deciphered it. You should get
an award just for that, no photo required !

OKaaaay ... soooo .... letsseeee

Prolly monochrome, with angst, maybe
a bit confrontational. Hmmnnn. Got it !

Definitely "an excursus on the subject,
addressed both from a physical, chemical
and biological point of view"

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Pure excursus ... zero divagation

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User ID

This is fun. Ultra stoopid fun. Do join in !

From the Call for Entries:
" .... both from a physical, chemical and
biological point of view and from a social,
cultural and political one."

As to Transition and Displacement, both
are central to any generational hand-off.
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StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Just had to open it up for the Attic, huh? Well, here's a comeback for you - It is more like one of IMPOTUS's speaches . . . . Word Salad.

Stan

digit-up Loc: Flushing, Michigan

If I were a FACEBOOK stooge, I would probably be locked up, For what I would be saying “PUBLICALLY” about today’s American politicians. Both sides are screwing us. That seems to be the NATURE OF POLITICIANS across the globe. Sad!!......RJM

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I don't know why. Perhaps to confuse people with limited vocabulary skills and thereby keep them from participating in the contest.

User ID

I'm pretty sure it's a joke. I mean, the photo
competition might be real, but the language
in the call is sort of an inside joke. Those who
can see it as a joke will enter the competition
[if there really is one] regardless. Guidelines
are minimal despite the maximal language
deployed to state them.

Hurts my head, but I can actually read the
call. Here's a translation:

Guidelines basically state that submissions
should depict reality, and render a deep look
at the subject as something that lives in a
larger context than what can be presented
merely within the frame. That larger context
can be social, political, scientific or spiritual
[really a version of social].

Essentially, entries should communicate
that there is more "there" than meets the
eye of the casual viewer. One corollary of
that would be that mere "pretty pictures"
will be rejected, regardless of high pixel
count and terrific bokeh. Right ON, Mofo !

If the insane language of the original has
any "higher meaning" I'd read it as "If you
can't take a joke, go away". Seriously.

Examples of what I think meet guidelines,,
as best I understand them:
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Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

When I was in college, we used to sit around in the student commons and laugh at the kids enrolled in Philosophy 101. They were a bunch of 18 years olds without a clue who thought they were really something. They sit there talking a lot, using all sorts of fancy words and phrases that had absolutely no meaning. They just sounded good. I guess. We, more down to earth folks, called them “pseudo-intellectuals.” Those kids talked a lot and said nothing. It was great entertainment.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Hi, Martin,
The passage you quoted was obviously written by a person fluent in the use of “International Art English”, also known as “Artspeak”. It is an intentionally obfuscatory manner of exposition used in hopes of somehow imbuing bullshit with a semblance of significance and meaning. I have found it most frequently encountered in the “Artist’s Statement” submitted along with an application to display one’s works as a show in a gallery or art museum that has issued a “Call for Entries” (CFE).

You will also find many examples of “Artspeak” in many graphic artist’s websites.

I am glad to say that, in general, photographers tend to eschew such bloviated lingo, but there are a few exceptions...usually failed graphic artists who, hopefully, latch onto photography as a last, forelorn hope for a means of expressing whatever their warped psyche’s can imagine as significant.

Fluency in Artspeak seems to be a requirement for graduation from a number of Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts programs at a large number of Art Schools and Graduate Fine Arts Programs, but is now, I think, being offered as an elective in smaller, community college art programs.

Google “Artspeak”. You’ll enjoy!

Dave

L-Fox

You rascal....

Bill P

Sad but true.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Take more drugs and it will all become clear. Or you'll have a psychotic episode. (With apologies to Men In Black I)

srt101fan

Oh, what fun it is to put down things we don't understand....

cameranut Loc: North Carolina

Someone has an astronomical vocabulary and wanted to put every 3, 4, and 5 syllable word he/she knew into one paragraph. Gibberish, as someone said.

User ID

Nope. Not gibberish. It is highly condensed
information, much like the sports page in a
newspaper. The sports page is just gibberish
to my eyes [or ears if broadcast] but I don't
declare it meaningless just cuz I don't grock
a single crumb of it.

Not only do I find the sports page gibberish
to my ears, but I also consider the subject
matter of that gibberish to be overly hyped
child's play and of zero benefit to society in
general, unless society is highly dependent
on massive sales of beer and pickup trucks.

Just as the Call for Entries is overly dense
with five-syllable jargon that really simply
says "meaningful pix, no flowers, birds or
sunsets" ... so the sports pages are full of
inscrutable numbers, and acronyms, that
really only mean "some dudes ran faster,
and threw harder, than some other dudes".

Darkroom317 Loc: Mishawaka, IN

Don't worry. You're certainly not alone. Even as a current MFA student who is used to this language, I am having trouble with this. It is so broad and is rather vague. I understand that they are looking for states of transition. I actually surprised that the term "liminl space" wasn't thrown in there as is one of the more popular buzzwords when I was in undergrad a few years ago.

Probably perhaps, social states of transition, such as the awkwardness of tweens becoming teens and so forth. But it is extremely hard to tell here.

Unfortunately, what I a have found is that this language works as a form of exclusion to maintain a certain prestige and a small circle. I tend to avoid these types of calls for entry.