Competition Guidelines and Rules
General Information
Due Date
Forms and artwork must be received by or before midnight US Central Standard Time on November 18, 2012 for all entries.
Theme
Artwork should address the theme:
How will humans use science and technology to explore space, and what mysteries will we uncover?
Eligibility
Art from two artist age-group categories will be judged separately: ages 10–13 years and 14–18 years. Individuals must be 10 to 18 years old (born on or after September 1, 1993). An artist younger than 10 years old may still enter the competition, but he/she will be judged along with children 10–13 years old.
Teams
We welcome team entries, including those from our MissionX partners. Teams use the same process as a single artist, but a main point of contact must be indicated for the team, and each artist in the team still needs to include his/her contact information and submit his/her own parent or guardian signed agreement.
Multiple Entries by an Artist
Artists are permitted to submit up to 3 entries total in the same or different art categories, but each item must be submitted separately with a complete set of entry information included.
Submission is Electronic*
Artists must submit all artwork electronically; even visual art must be entered as digital images (such as photographs) of the original artwork. A complete submission will have:
1. An entry form that includes:
- Artwork, Team (if applicable) and Contact information
- Artist’s Statement of Originality (400 words or less)
The Artist’s Statement of Originality is a very important part of the submission, and thus the artist should try to write a good quality statement. It is the artist’s chance to provide information to help judges to understand, appreciate, and evaluate his/her art. The statement should include the motivation, storyline, and/or messages of the art. Artist should also indicate materials used, any assistance or teamwork involved, and credit to others for visual artwork, music, written information, video, performances, etc. incorporated into the submitted artwork with permission.
- Artwork (See additional information under artwork genres links below)
2. Agreement submitted by a parent or guardian, or by the artist if he/she is 18 years old or older.
The agreement is designed to protect the youth artists and the Competition Organizers (USRA) and to grant USRA permission to use the artist’s name, age, country of origin, Statement of Originality, and all or part of the artist’s artwork in print, television, internet or other media.Please review the agreement for complete information.
Preview Agreement here.
Please make sure that an artist’s name is NOT visible on the electronic version of the submitted art but IS clearly stated on the entry form. Details about how to submit each of these items is available at the “How to Enter” tab on the website.
* If an electronic submission absolutely cannot be provided, please contact humansinspaceart@lpi.usra.edu to determine whether it is still possible to enter the competition.
Disqualifications
Artwork can be disqualified for either:
1) Falsification of any information on the forms submitted, including plagiarism or use of copyrighted material without permission or documentation of effort to obtain permission as per the rules for a given artwork category.
2) Use of profanity, nudity not representing the human body in a positive way, substance abuse, or violent images.
If an artwork is disqualified, an artist will not be eligible for any award, certificate of participation, or display of his/her artwork. The artist will receive a brief note regarding his/her disqualification.
Art Genres Information
Artists should select one of the links below for more information about the specific type of artwork that they wish to submit. If an artist is not sure to which art genre their artwork should be submitted, please contact humansinspaceart@lpi.usra.edu.
Visual Art Literary ArtVideo ArtMusical Art
Visual Art
Only original visual artwork can be entered in the competition, and initial submissions are digital images of the physical art. Please take the highest quality photo that you can to get a high resolution, in focus, and centered image of your artwork. These digital images should be submitted as either .jpg, .gif, or .png files with a maximum file size of 15 Mb.
Some submitters may be asked to provide a higher resolution image for display of artwork. Thus please keep your original artwork. Visual art submitters should also be prepared to send their original artwork temporarily to the Competition organizers, if requested, for use in displays requiring only originals. Winning artwork may also be selected for possible auction; if so an artist will be asked to sign an additional waiver that permits the Competition organizers to auction their artwork before the artist sends their artwork to the Competition organizers.
Do NOT send original art unless you are specifically asked to do so.
Include information about the size of your original artwork and the media that you used to create it in your Artist’s Statement of Originality, in addition to the other information requested (See “How to Enter” tab).
Artists will be asked to indicate their Visual Art Category on the entry form.
Two-Dimensional (2D) Visual Art Category
This artwork is defined as largely flat images produced via single or multiple media, such as, paintings or drawings made from watercolors, acrylics, oils, pencils, magic markers, inks, charcoals, mixed media cloth, Photoshop, 3D computer modeling software, etc. One digital image per 2D visual art entry is permitted.
Sequential Visual Art Category
This artwork is defined as graphic novels or comic strips. A maximum of eight (8) pages (with each page containing multiple frames) is allowed for a sequential art entry.
Three-Dimensional (3D) Visual Art Category
This artwork is defined as sculpture, using single or multiple materials such as clay, paper-mache, wood, plaster, legos, etc. Three digital images (preferably of different views) per 3D entry are permitted.
Criteria for Judging Visual Art Genre
The panel of contest judges will be a mixture of scientists, engineers, and artists from around the world. Judges will be instructed to award a maximum of 100 points to an artwork, with a possible bonus of 5 points if there is no obvious breaking of scientific principles. The bonus indicates that the competition organizers prefer that artists present a possible scenario (such as, NOT showing a human breathing without wearing a helmet when in an environment with no atmosphere, showing objects on the Moon or another massive extraterrestrial body being completely weightless, or showing ships in space making banked turns or changing speed or direction without firing a rocket, etc.).
Aesthetics (Shapes, colors, textures, flow, proportions, composition, etc.) [20 points]
Skill (Are knowledge of the media or principles of art demonstrated?) [20 points]
Inherent meaning (What is the story or statement?) [20 points]
Creativity (Is the artwork creative and original?) [20 points]
Fulfilled intent (Does it meet the objective to express something about: “How will humans use science and technology to explore space, and what mysteries will we uncover?”) [20 points]
Bonus: No breach of obvious scientific principles [5 points maximum extra]
Literary Art
Only original literary artwork can be entered into the competition. Plagiary will be disqualified. If you have any questions about whether your writing would be considered plagiary, contact humansinspaceart@lpi.usra.edu
Artwork should be submitted in 12 point Arial, New Times Roman or Courier font. It should be written in English, but native and non-native English speakers will be judged separately. If an artist is a native English (NE) speaker (usually defined as English is an official language of his/her country), he/she should submit to the "NE" subcategory, unless he/she feels extremely disadvantaged writing in English as opposed to another language. If an artist writes first in his/her native language and then uses a program like Google translate to convert the text to English, he or she should try to have someone proofread the writing to minimize common language conversion errors. Artists should submit literary artwork electronically as a PDF file. Most writing software allows a user to save automatically to a PDF format, but if the particular software used does not, an artist should be able to use one of the free tools for printing to a PDF available on the internet, such as primopdf, bullzip, cutepdf, or pdfforge.
Artists will be asked to indicate their Literary Art Category and Subcategory on the entry form.
Poetry Literary Art Category
Maximum 40 lines allowed.
Subcategories
- Native English Speaker (NE) Author
- Non-Native English Speaker (NNE) Author
Short Story (fiction) Literary Art Category
Maximum 3000 words allowed.
Subcategories
- Native English Speaker (NE) Author
- Non-Native English Speaker (NNE) Author
Essay (non-fiction) Literary Art Category
Maximum 1000 words allowed.
Subcategories
- Native English Speaker (NE) Author
- Non-Native English Speaker (NNE) Author
Criteria for Judging Literary Art
The panel of contest judges will be a mixture of scientists, engineers, and artists from around the world. Judges will be instructed to award a maximum of 100 points to an artwork, with a possible bonus of 5 points if there is no obvious breaking of scientific principles. The bonus indicates that the competition organizers prefer that artists present a possible scenario (such as, NOT having a human breathing without wearing a helmet when in an environment with no atmosphere, describing objects on the Moon or another massive extraterrestrial body as being completely weightless, having things in a vacuum making sound or ships in space making banked turns or changing speed or direction without firing a rocket, etc).
Aesthetics [20 points]
- Poetry (Consider imagery, speaker, occasion, and tone.)
- Short Story [Consider plot (structure of action), characters, point of view, setting (time and place), symbolism/imagery, and tone.]
- Essay (Consider purpose, clarity, and tone.)
Mechanics (language and style, structure and organization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation) [20 points]
Inherent meaning [20 points]
- Poetry (What is the central purpose of the poem? Is this purpose realized? By what means is the purpose realized?)
- Short Story (Is the story well-structured to accomplish its central purpose? Are technique and subject matter fused into a meaningful whole? What is the impact on the reader?)
- Essay (What is the central information or opinion the essay attempts to convey? Is the information conveyed in an effective, comprehensive way?)
Creativity (Is the written work creative and original?) [20 points]
Fulfilled intent (Does it meet the competition objective to express something about: “How will humans use science and technology to explore space, and what mysteries will we uncover?” 20 points]
Bonus: No breach of obvious scientific principles [5 points maximum extra]
Video Art
Video artwork can be of any type, including animation, claymation, narrative, documentary, dance, music, experimental, etc. to showcase creativity, but must be in English or subtitled in English. Videos must be less than 3 minutes in length.
Only original videos can be entered into the competition. Provide proper credit for:
- Drawings
Drawings, if used in the video, should preferably be original. If an artist uses pre-drawn clip art or artwork from another person, he/she should use only copyright-free art (providing credit to the original artist if known) or obtain written permission to use the copyrighted art. Please keep track of how any clip art was obtained, so that the source of the clip art may be provided if a video is selected for display.
- Music
Background music in a video can be originally composed, “copyright-free” music (also sometimes called “royalty-free”), or music for which there is a copyright but ONLY if you have permission from the music publisher to use it. Please keep track of how any background music was obtained, so that the source of the music can be provided if a video is selected for display.
- Actors
All people appearing in the video must give their permission to be shown in the video, and artist should credit actors.
- Software
Credit must also be given to any software used in the creation of the video.
Artists will be asked to indicate their Video Art Category on the entry form.
Animation Video Art Category
This category is defined as the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2D or 3D artwork to create an illusion of movement.
Live Action Video Art Category
Often referred to as “cinematography”, live action video does not include animations as described above and are frequently performed by real actors. This category could include drama, short film, or one act plays with or without accompanying music.
Dance Video Art Category
This video category is a variant of Live Action Video where dance is heavily featured.
Slide Show Video Art Category
This type of video frequently has a background of heavily featured music, but also includes static or moving clips (“slides”) of artwork or videos embedded in it.
Interactive Website Art Category
The interactive website art category features a basic website panel where a user can mouse over or click on various components to get to various short videos or snapshots of additional information.
Video upload instructions
Artists should upload his/her video to YouTube , click “Upload”) and provide the YouTube link created for his/her submitted video on the competition online Entry Form. An artist might need to first obtain a username and password for YouTube, prior to uploading a video, if he/she does not already have one. Follow all instructions for uploading videos, taking care to select “view publicly” and to NOT allow embedding of comments, comment voting, video responses, video rating, or external sites in the video. Also include “2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition” as tag words for the video, so that a video can be easily identified via a search associated with the competition.
Artists should keep all raw and final formats of video files or any other information that might be needed later in order to prepare a video submission for display, if selected.
Judging Criteria for Video Artwork
The panel of contest judges will be a mixture of scientists, engineers, and artists from around the world. Judges will be instructed to award a maximum of 100 points to an artwork, with a possible bonus of 5 points if there is no obvious breaking of scientific principles. The bonus indicates that the competition organizers prefer that artists present a possible scenario (such as, NOT having a human breathing without wearing a helmet when in an environment with no atmosphere, describing objects on the Moon or another massive extraterrestrial body as being completely weightless, having things in a vacuum making sound or ships in space making banked turns or changing speed or direction without firing a rocket, etc).
Production Quality (Aesthetics and more--visual aesthetics; audio appropriate and effective; lighting appropriate and of quality; good use of actors, props, location) [20 points]
Technical Skill (Camera operation, video editing) [20 points]
Final Product (Intended meaning and more—story flow; cohesiveness; overall video quality; communication of message, special effects, the “wow” factor) [20 points]
Creativity (Is the video creative and original?) [20 points]
Fulfilled Intent (Does it meet the competition objective to express something about: “How will humans use science and technology to explore space, and what mysteries will we uncover?”)[20 points]
Bonus: No breach of obvious scientific principles [5 points maximum extra]
Musical Art
Only original musical compositions will be accepted. Borrowing from copyrighted material is not allowed without permission. Upon submission, music performers (if any) and any software used to compose the work must also be credited.
Audio files must be submitted in .mp3 format and must be smaller than 15 MB. If an artist cannot create an mp3 format, please email humansinspaceart@lpi.usra.edu. Musical recording or generating software will often allow an artist to save in one of these formats. If not, an artist should use the free software available on the internet to convert his/her file to one of these formats.
Sheet music or lyrics, if applicable and/or required (see details below), should be submitted in PDF format. Most software allows an artist to save automatically to a PDF format, but if the artist is using one that does not, he or she should be able to use one of the free tools on the internet for printing to a PDF, such as primopdf, bullzip, cutepdf, or pdfforge, etc.
Artists should keep all raw formats of files or any other information that might be needed later in order to prepare a submission for display at the Symposium, if selected.
The Artist’s Statement of Originality is especially important for the judging of musical artwork, as it helps the evaluator to understand the story or motivation behind the music. Please consider that fact when preparing your Statement. It is also a good place to explain the meaning behind the use of particular instruments or audio samplings used in the music.
Artists will be asked to indicate their Musical Art Category on the entry form.
Non-orchestral Musical Art Category
Compositions should be less than 5 minutes and can use any type of instruments or audio samplings chosen by the composer. Composer should provide an audio file (digital reproductions or live recordings) of the music. Also, if lyrics are used, he/she should submit a PDF file with the lyrics. Composer should also provide sheet music, chords, or guitar tab, whenever possible, in a PDF to allow for possible live performance of the music, if selected.
Orchestral Musical Art Category
Compositions should use only “standard orchestral instruments” and be suitable for performance by talented high school-aged performers. Music should be no longer than 10 minutes maximum (shorter is just fine too). If any adult help has been used in composing this type of music, please acknowledge who helped you and in what way in your Artist Statement of Originality. Compositions of this type must be submitted both as an audio file and as sheet music in a PDF file. Be prepared to provide your music later as individual instrument parts, if your music is selected for performance.
Judging Criteria
The panel of contest judges will be a mixture of scientists, engineers, and artists from around the world. Judges will be instructed to award a maximum of 100 points to an artwork, based on the following criteria.
Aesthetics (“Is it music?” How artistic, enjoyable or beautiful is the work?) [30 points]
Mechanics (Demonstrates proper use of time signatures, notes, chords, stems, rhythm, etc.) [20 points]
Structure (Demonstrates traditional and/or inventive use of melody, harmony, choice of instruments, and form.) [20 points]
Creativity (Is the music creative and original?) [20 points]
Fulfilled Intent (Is thematic topic apparent in the work? Judges may rely heavily on the Artist’s Statement of Originality to evaluate the artwork for this criterion.) [10 points]
