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REV-
revolve | reversion | revelry | review | reverence | revamp | revise | reverse | reverse | revolution | revalue | reverberate...

10 sec. 1 bayt.
+992-98-537-89-54
Call for Participation in the US: TBA
Call for Participation in Tajikistan: Mon Oct 12 (noon) to Wed Oct 14 (noon), 2009

Открытый конкурс в Таджикистане:
Начало конкурса 12-е октября (полдень), конец среда 14-го октября 2009 года.

http://www.10sec1bayt.com

Introduction
Many Tajiks are aware that for those cell phone users who have a plan with the Central Asian telecommunications company named Babilon, the first ten seconds of any phone call are free. To take advantage of this freebee, strategic users have developed a new art form - the ten second conversation.

Inspired by this contemporary cultural form and the Tajik/Persian tradition of 2-verse poetry (or 'Bayt'), REV- (www.rev-it.org) is initiating a competition entitled 10 sec 1 bayt for the best ten second poems. You are invited to participate; newcomers to Tajik poetry are invited to try their hand.

The project's title, 'Bayt' (pronounced 'bite' in English), refers to both the Tajik/Persian word for the short 2-verse poem popularized to Western audiences by the Rubayat, written in the 12th century by poet Omar Khayyam. 'Bayt' also resembles in sound the English noun that means, 'a small piece' (as in, "Just a bite"), and the 'byte', an internationally recognized unit used to measure quantities of digital data.

Developed by REV- Artistic Director Marisa Jahn and emergent-media artist Connor Dickie; the Sogdiana Cultural Center (Khojand, Tajikistan), and Bactria (Dushanbe, Tajikistan), "10 sec. 1 bayt" is a project that sprung from the Global Arts Lab, a collaborative initiative drawing upon the expertise of two core partner organizations-CEC Artslink and Gordon Knox of the Stanford Humanities Lab at Stanford University.

Competition Details in Tajikistan
_The competition begins noon on Monday October 12 and ends at noon on Wednesday October 14. Only those residing in Tajikistan are eligible to apply. To participate, please call the following number: +992-537-89-54.
_Leave your 10 second poem but do NOT leave any other information. Your poem will be published to the web at http://www.10sec1bayt.com
_If you are selected as a winner, you will be called from the number that you dialed - so on October 31, between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm, be sure to leave your phone turned on.
_Submitted 10 second poems will be selected by their creativity and originality - and of course the poems must be only ten seconds long!
_Winning entries composed in Tajik and Russian will be selected by a group of prominent Central Asian poets, journalists, and cultural organizers. To ensure fairness, the names of the jurors will remain anonymous until the time that winners are announced.
_First place winner in Tajikistan will receive a cell phone. Second and third place winners in Tajikistan will receive a surprise. Additionally, their poem will be published over the radio airwaves, in the printed newspaper, and on the television.

Supporting Organizations
REV- is a non-profit organization that furthers socially-engaged art, design, and pedagogy. REV- produces projects that fuse disciplines, foster diversity, and vary in form (workshops, publications, exhibitions, design objects, etc.). Engaged with different communities and groups, REV-'s projects involve collaborative production, resource-sharing, and a commitment to the process as political gesture.

CEC Artslink is an international arts organization whose programs encourage and support exchange of artists and cultural managers between the United States and Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. CEC Artslink believes that the arts are a society's most deliberate and complex means of communication, and that artists and arts administrators can help nations overcome long histories of reciprocal distrust, insularity and conflict.

Sogd Cultural Education Center (Khojand, Tajikistan)

Bactria Cultural Centre is a contemporary artistic space that serves as a catalyst by providing opportunities to local artists to express their creativity in an entirely free and experimental way. At present it is the only venue in Dushanbe, Tajikistan that encourages artists to apply innovative approaches to manifest their artistic visions.

Directed by Rachel McIntire and Amanda Lichtenstein, Break Arts aims to inspire young people around the world to co-author the stories of their lives.

Thanks also to Luke Lozier/Bibliopolis and Hiroshi Ishii, MIT Media Lab (Tangible Media Group)

REV-
furthering socially-engaged art, design, and pedagogy.
www.rev-it.org | marisa@rev-it.org
323 West 39th St #311
New York, NY 10018
917-902-5396

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