The open call is open to all practitioners over the age of 18 regardless of location. There is no need to have studied at an educational institution in the UK or elsewhere. TPG encourages applications from all individuals and groups who meet the criteria and whose work shows outstanding talent, originality and innovation. The Photographers’ Gallery is committed to equal opportunities and we encourage applications from all persons without discrimination.

Online applications will be accepted between 30 April and 16 June 2024 here. If you have accessibility needs and would prefer to submit in any other format (such as video), please contact us at digital.programme@tpg.org.uk.

1. Each submission should include a proposal (up to 500 words), how your proposal links to the open call (up to 200 words), likely outcomes (200 words) and a link/attachment towards a portfolio.

2. The selection process will be undertaken in English.

3. Artists, groups and collectives are able to submit. Submitters are also allowed to use human-machine collaborative projects of their own creation.

4. One submission by each person or group will be accepted.

5. All submissions are free.

• One project proposal (up to 500 words)
• How your proposal links to the open call (up to 200 words)
• Likely project outcomes (up to 200 words)
• Your name and contact details
• Examples of previous work and/or a link to your website

The image, scrape, synthesise, collapse open call is open to all areas of practices and works will be presented within the context of The Photographers’ Gallery, Unthinking Photography and the research programme funded by Paul Mellon Centre set out above. Proposals should consider:

• how the proposed project can be contextualised historically, in relation to photography, wider visual imagery and knowledge production
• how the practices and processes used within the proposed project might be preserved
• how the work fits in to your practice to date

One work will be selected by a team of people including members of The Photographers’ Gallery digital programme, as well as an external invited selector. We are not conducting interviews, however if any questions arise during the shortlisting process about your proposal, we may be in touch.

View a diagram of the selection process here.

The commission includes £4000 as an artist fee, paid in two installments upon signing a contract, and a production budget of £5000. A detailed budget will be developed upon selection.

The commission will be displayed in two forms: online, on the platform Unthinking Photography, and at The Photographers’ Gallery. The artist(s) will be expected to provide a schedule of work with timelines, information and images for communications in a timely manner, as per the contract, as well as taking part in a public presentation/event and video interview.

• unthinking.photography
• Data / Set / Match
• A Cat, A Dog, A Microwave
• Cartography of Generative AI
• Forensic Architectures Experiments in Synthetic Data
• Knowing Machines
• CriticalAI.art

Ioanna Zouli is a researcher and curator. Her work focuses on digital and networked ecologies as well as on contemporary visual culture. Her PhD research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.), and A.G. Leventis Foundation, was an embedded ethnography conducted at Tate Modern, which explored the contemporary art museum’s understanding(s) of digital and network culture. She currently works as an independent curator and as an associate researcher in the Centre of New Media & Feminist Public Practices at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly. She is also the editor of unthinking.photography, the online platform of The Photographers’ Gallery digital programme, and a research associate at the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image based at London South Bank University.

Sam Mercer is an artist, curator and producer. Since 2014 Sam has been working on the Digital Programme at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, curating a number of projects for Media Wall and online, and was assistant curator for the exhibition All I Know Is What’s On The Internet. In 2019/20, Sam co-curated Data / Set / Match, a year-long programme of commissions that sought new ways to present, visualise and interrogate scientific image datasets, followed by Imagin(in)g Networks (21-22), Aarati Akkapeddi - A-Kin (2022) and Between Worlds (2023).

Winnie Soon is a Hong Kong-born artist coder and researcher interested in the cultural implications of digital infrastructure that addresses wider power asymmetries with a particular interest in computational publishing, code and software. Their artistic and scholarly works engage with themes such as Free and Open Source Culture, Coding Otherwise, artistic/technical manuals, digital censorship and minor technology. With works appearing in museums, galleries, festivals, distributed networks, papers and alternative written forms, including co-authored books titled Boundary Images (2023), Fix My Code (2021), and Aesthetic Programming (2020). Winnie is the co-editor of the Software Studies Book Series (MIT Press), Co-PI of the research project Digital Activism and co-research lead, British Digital Art, British Art Network. Artistically, Winnie received the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica (Artificial Intelligence and Life Art Category), the Expanded Media Award for Network Culture at Stuttgarter Filmwinter — Festival for Expanded Media, WRO 2019 Media Art Biennale Award, and the 26th and 17th ifva awards (Special Mention and Silver award). Currently, they are Associate Professor of Art and Technology at UCL - Slade School of Fine Art, Associate Professor (on leave) at Aarhus University and visiting researcher at the Centre of the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI), London South Bank University.

By submitting your application for the image, scrape, synthesise, collapse Open Call you are accepting the following Terms and Conditions. This agreement constitutes the entire and only agreement between you and The Photographers’ Gallery. The Photographers’ Gallery is a not-for-profit, independent, educational charity (UK Charity commission no. 262548). 

> I confirm all the works submitted are my own and I have the intellectual copyright to use, exhibit and distribute them. 

> I am not a staff member at The Photographers’ Gallery, or a sponsor of the organisation.

> I understand that the name, captions, texts and images or moving image files I upload to the image, scrape, synthesise, collapse Open Call application site will be reviewed by The Photographers’ Gallery curatorial staff to create a shortlist, and the commissions will be selected by a panel.

> Unless agreed otherwise, The Photographers’ Gallery will only accept applications submitted through the Submittable website and cannot offer feedback on any individual application.

> If selected, I allow my images to be used in print and online (including social media and other platforms) for marketing, press, promotional and educational purposes related to the programme and The Photographers’ Gallery’s wider activities. Any images used will be fully and accurately credited when sent to press and third parties by The Photographers’ Gallery. Copyright for all texts and images is retained by their respective author.

> If my application is successful, my name, text and selected works, can be uploaded to The Photographers’ Gallery website and will be accessible to the public. My work will remain part of the Gallery’s online archive for an indefinite period. Occasionally images may be cropped for purposes of fitting into the website format, this will only be done when absolutely necessary. 

> The Photographers’ Gallery reserves the right to edit extended texts submitted through the application process, this will be done in consultation with the artist.

> All submitted information, text and images are my sole responsibility, not The Photographers’ Gallery's, and do not breach any third-party copyright. I am entirely responsible for all content that I have uploaded or make otherwise available.

> I do not hold The Photographers’ Gallery, including all its staff and trustees, responsible for any losses, claims, liabilities, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable legal fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms and Conditions or any activity related to the service (including negligent or wrongful conduct) by myself or any other person.