Maiden Voyage Commission - an open call for submissions

In May 2012 a remarkable boat will set sail on its maiden voyage. The 30ft yacht, crafted by a fearlessly adventurous team of boat builders, will be a living archive of people's lives and stories.

Since February 2011 members of the public have been donating their wooden belongings to the project. From the mundane to the extraordinary, donations come in every size and shape: toothpicks, coffee tables, hair-brushes, picture frames, walking sticks and front doors. Each donation has played a part in the life of the donor, each has a story to tell – of personal and national significance. The boat is constructed from these donations. A book published at the boat’s launch will document each of the individual donations and the stories behind them. A copy of the book will be kept on the boat, as an index to its constituent parts.

The boat will be launched in May 2012. Its maiden voyage will follow, with the boat visiting five locations where a bespoke festival will be created around its arrival, stay and departure. The boat’s crew will be made up of members of the public, nominated by family and friends, working under a professional skipper. An artist - selected through this call-out - will also be onboard working on a serial project that has an outcome presented at each of the five maiden voyage destinations: Brighton (as a part of the Brighton Festival), Portsmouth (as part of Portsmouth Festivities), Hastings, Margate and Milton Keynes (as a part of the Milton Keynes International Festival).

We are interested to hear from artists/companies working in performance, photography, text, sound, screen or digital-based medias to propose a version of a ‘ship’s log’ that would both respond to the boat’s unique history, the thousand of lives that came together to create it and its voyage along the south coast of England. The commission will present an outcome in each of the five voyage destinations, so will need to function in series, and will perhaps have an accumulating structure. The shape, form and length of the outcomes are entirely up to you, as is its location and context – although the voyage, the course of the journey and the boat itself need to function as the centre of the work.

Your project may address, though not be limited to, one or more of the following concerns:

• Expedition, adventure and voyaging
• Navigation and wayfinding
• Mythologies of the sea and seafaring
• The sea and leisure
• The sea and commerce
• Ideas of ‘the coast’
• Archives of the everyday, collecting and collections
• The boat’s five ports of call during its maiden voyage
• The boat’s crew
• The Boat Project’s donation archive

The boat is a daysailer and does not offer accommodation; a small cuddy creates something of an internal space. The voyage will run from May to July 2012 with a number of breaks in the schedule where you will be land-based. Artists without sailing experience will be fully trained ahead of the voyage. This callout is

international and artists based in all countries are welcome to submit a proposal. The fee for the project, including your material costs, is £8,000. Your travel and accommodation costs will be covered separately.

Before writing your proposal please fully acquaint yourself with The Boat Project at www.theboatproject.com

Your proposal must be no longer than one page of an A4 Word document and must begin with a 100-word (max) synopsis of your project. If you wish to share documentation of any previous work please provide a web address where it can be viewed online – consider using flickr.com, or similar, if you don’t already have dedicated web space. Please do not include any further attachments with your proposal document.

Proposals exceeding one page and any proposals arriving with further attachments will not be included in the selection process.

Please title your proposal document using your name, i.e. ‘Josephine Bloggs.doc’.

Please email your proposal to commission@theboatproject.com by August 31st 2011

For more information visit http://www.theboatproject.com/