Click picture to see movie trailer - this year's festival's outline:

You can download this trailer here.

The movie trailer for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is a sardonic speech about nature and its “age long relationship to man.” Hitchcock makes no reservations about stating that this relationship is destructive and unilateral. However, the movie scenes that follow the speech hint at nature’s revenge. Rather than being a monologue, Hitchcock’s trailer forms part of a critical dialogue about human interference in a natural state and humanity’s attempts at omnipotence over a stronger force that started in the Romantic period and that earns more and more political weight as more generations grow up witnessing various kinds of destruction and ruin.

Now, respond to this position from your gut, from personal observations, from research or using all of the above. In your response, feel free to disagree with Hitchcock, or perhaps to commend him on his insightful predictions: Nature is indeed having its Revenge.

The Communication category is open to undergraduate and graduate students of any discipline.

There are two formats in which you can present your work:

1. Opinion Piece:

The opinion piece must reflect a personal approach to the issues raised by the trailer but still make use of theories and/or case studies from the field of Communication.

Length: 5-7 Pages

On the title page, please write your first and last name, field of study, e-mail address, the title of the piece, an abstract of up to 100 words, and 6 highlighted keywords.

2. Annotated academic article:

Using recent academic literature that inquires into the socio-philosophical aspects of humanitys exponential shortening of the Earths natural life span through industrial endeavors that involve deforestation and greenhouse gas emission, and humanitys destruction of itself through war, biomedicine, and genetic engineering, immerse yourself in the dialogue over who is right, wrong, virtuous, corrupt, or simply in control in this “age old relationship.”

You may also present original independent research on the issue.

Length: 5-7 pages

On the title page, please write your first and last name, field of study, e-mail address, the title of the piece, a summary of up to 100 words, and 6 highlighted keywords.

Your work should be presented in standard essay form with citations that are consistent with one of the acceptable social-sciences styles.

Click picture to see movie trailer - this year's festival's outline:

You can download this trailer here.

The movie trailer for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is a sardonic speech about nature and its “age long relationship to man.” Hitchcock makes no reservations about stating that this relationship is destructive and unilateral. However, the movie scenes that follow the speech hint at nature’s revenge. Rather than being a monologue, Hitchcock’s trailer forms part of a critical dialogue about human interference in a natural state and humanity’s attempts at omnipotence over a stronger force that started in the Romantic period and that earns more and more political weight as more generations grow up witnessing various kinds of destruction and ruin.

As a designer, your task is to produce a work that responds to and communicates with the apocalyptic cynicism of Hitchcock’s discourse.

For example, you can choose to portray man’s destruction of the natural environment, or, rather, the exponential shortening of the natural life span of the Earth as a planet through industrial endeavors that involve deforestation and greenhouse gas emission. You can also choose to exemplify man’s destruction of other, more human environments, not to mention other humans, as in the endless war atrocities we have seen in the last decades alone. You can demonstrate environmental revenge through natural catastrophes, or resistant strains of viruses and bacteria (both resulting from human misguided action), or, more optimistically, depict the positive affect environmental movements have had at specific points in commercial history. But these are just suggestions; you’re the creative, after all!

The Visual Arts Category is open to undergraduate and graduate students of any discipline.

When submitting your work, include a rationale no longer than 150 words.

Accepted Formats

A: Graphics (Static)
We accept: posters, logos, packaging illustrations, digital and analog photography and public art installations (with photo documentation and a summary of the concept in writing)
Recommended formats (in CMYK): .pdf, .eps, .jpg, .ai

B: Film/Animation
This category includes films, animations and videos. Maximum length – 60 seconds.
Recommended formats: .avi (divx/xvid/ineo), .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, .swf

C: Websites/Interactive
Websites and interactive creations must be supported by the majority of browsers, and must thus employ standard coding (such as Flash, Javascript, Java applets, Shockwave, etc.).

This category has been added to encourage those radical communicators who like to think "outside the box". While a lot of subversive writing and design has emerged which challenges the status quo using its own conventions, very few of these initiatives have employed a mode of communication that is not rooted in commercial culture itself. The "Beyond..." category hopes to bring out new visual and conceptual forms of communication which catalyze social change while engaging people as something more than mere consumers.

Please read the following summary of what does and does not belong in the Beyond… category

The Beyond... category is looking for submissions of written work and visual work. For more information on how to submit go here.

The Beyond... category is open to all students, activists, professionals, misfits, malingerers etc.

For more context on the Beyond.. category, please read:
- What is wrong with Market-style communication.
- Can we dream our way out of market culture and its devices?