CONTENTS

• Upload Instructions
• General considerations
• FAQ
• Instructions for Winners

UPLOADING

• You must be logged in to the NCBS news site: LOGIN (top right of page) with the username and password that accesses your NCBS email account.
• Choose 'UPLOAD IMAGE' link from the right hand side navigation panel of NCBS News and you will be directed to the UPLOAD IMAGE page.
• From within that page: "Browse" to and choose the image of your choice. "Upload" the file
• Choose the appropriate gallery by modifying the 'Image Gallery' option on the page.
• Add a Title in the "Title" field

You must include the following information to the "Caption" field

• Mode/s by which image was created (e.g. "A digital collage that includes my own hand-drawn sketches, my own photographs, images from the web and elements created within Photoshop" or "Scan of a pencil sketch.").
• Year of creation
• Full name of main artist

Editing of your own images is now also possible.

No submissions over email will qualify to participate in the competition. FIVE images will be allowed per person. Image size restrictions: 300 KB, 700 x 700 pixels.

NOTE: Photographers who are taking photos during the course of the competition should use the highest possible resolution on their camera. Do not submit this orginal, but keep the file in case you win an award.

The December competition will be focused on online submissions of original artworks (on no particular theme) that, in brief:

• have been created digitally or
• are digital representations of your own real-life 2D artworks: paintings, drawings, collages, etc.Photographs of other people's artworks are not allowed, unless they substantially add something "extra" to the piece (e.g. a photo of a billboard for luxury apartments, juxtaposed against apparently homeless people).

To expand on the two categories above:

* Works that have been created digitally (e.g. on a computer). This can include "derivative works" (e.g. collages including some unoriginal works) but keep in mind the need for evidence of some originality (or "transformativeness") in such usage:

e.g. see Wikipedia's article on Derivative Art from which the following entertaining account is extracted:

"Examples of derivative works under U.S. law

The most famous derivative work in the world has been said to be L.H.O.O.Q.,[18] also known as the Mona Lisa With a Moustache. Generations of US copyright law professors - since at least the 1950s - have used it as a paradigmatic example. Marcel Duchamp created the work by adding, among other things, a moustache, goatee, and the caption L.H.O.O.Q. (meaning "she has a hot tail") to Leonardo's iconic work. These few, seemingly insubstantial additions were highly transformative because they incensed contemporary French bourgeoisie,[19] by mocking their cult of
"Jocondisme,"[20] at that time said to be "practically a secular religion of the French bourgeoisie and an important part of their self image." Duchamp's defacement of their icon was considered "a major stroke of "epater le bourgeois." Thus, it has been said that the "transformation of a cult icon into an object of ridicule by adding a small quantum of additional material can readily be deemed preparation of a derivative work.""

* Works that are digital representations of your original real-life 2D artworks: paintings, drawings, collages, etc. Works could be scanned/otherwise-digitally-captured versions. The original 2D artwork should be of a kind whose qualities can be properly appreciated and enjoyed within the constraints of the 2D mode of presentation possible online.
Therefore a scan of a pencil-drawn sketch would be acceptable, but a photograph of a piece of pottery that you have made would not.

These are guidelines only of course, and we can only look forward to the many ways that people will creatively stretch the boundaries of "acceptability": e.g. the witty and popular photograph (?) of PubMed by Ishier (our own Duchamp?) in the Sustenance competition

FAQ

Q: Does digitizing photographs qualify as digital art? Like taking a real image and then adding up stuff to it in the computer?

A: I see three scenarios:

• If it's your own photo and "adding stuff" involves a lot more than just typical photoshopping (eg typical photoshopping could involve contrast enhancement; cropping; simple juxtaposition of images) then it's OK. The net result should in effect be something demonstrably beyond that which can be achieved using basic photographic technique. As such we would exclude what might otherwise be a highly artistic photograph if it does not step outside the "photographic tradition". Thus we would include six of the seven instructive cases described on this site, but NOT images of the first type: "Digital Photography".
• If it's someone else's image, and the image has no copyright issues (e.g. as clarified on the page devoted to a specific image located on wikicommons), and "adding stuff" involves a lot more than just typical photoshopping (refer to consideration of first scenario), then it is OK.
• If it's someone else's image, and it **has** got copyright issues, then it is OK **if and only if** you could provide an argument (e.g. if challenged by the copyright holder) as to why your changes could be considered "transformative" (e.g. see the Wikipedia article on Derivative Art).
• In all the cases above, when there is any reason to doubt an image's acceptability, the onus is on the submitter to (1) provide information in the caption that removes as much doubt as possible, and/or to (2) contact Geoff or Aathira for their advice.

If you win any award you must also provide us with some way to access the highest quality version of your image that you have. These will be necessary for printing.

• If the image is 15MB or less, than you can email it to me (aathira@ncbs.res.in)
• If the Image is more than 15MB: Email me a link from which we can download the file. The easiest system for this is probably a Dropbox account (https://www.dropbox.com/ ) or any other of the many similar free services. Such services allow you to provide other people with a "public link" to the file (Dropbox public link instructions: https://www.dropbox.com/help/16)