RhizomeMind
A Lab for Mapping Digital Environmentalism(s)
Western Film & Art Festival:
Emerging Visions of AI, Art, and Environment
Call for Submissions is open now!
Complete the submission form and send it to rhizomemind@gmail.com by September 30, 2025.
Driven by a desire to understand what it means to engage critically and creatively with AI in a time of ecological urgency, the Western Film & Art Festival (hereafter referred to as The Festival)—a key component of the Mapping Digital Environmentalism project—explores how the infrastructures and operational logics of AI, often embedded with bias and extractive histories, can be reconfigured through creative interventions that challenge dominant narratives and expand ecological imaginaries.​
​
This hybrid event creates space for dialogue, reflection, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, foregrounding AI as a terrain of struggle over the conditions of knowing, experiencing, and relating. In doing so, we explore what/how creative interventions might re-engineer the very architectures of perception toward more just, plural, and ecologically resonant futures. By thematizing AI and emerging digital technologies as plural milieux of perception, the festival raises questions such as:
-
How can AI help us to ‘hesitate’ or slowdown in our aesthetic and sense-making practices with respect to ecological relations?
-
How do creative engagements with AI open up new avenues for resistance, experimentation, and reimagining?
-
How might digital environmentalism disrupt extractive or appropriative knowledge economies and instead cultivate community engagement and growth?
​
Organizing Committee: Junyu Ke, Katrina Younes, Philip Gurrey. ​
Submission Guidelines
We welcome short films (under 7 minutes), immersive content, and experimental projects (data-, mobile-, or web-based) that engage with AI, environmental storytelling, and sustainability—especially those using emerging technologies to explore ecological connections, digital embodiment, and new modes of perception. We particularly encourage submissions that not only experiment with form but also critically engage with dominant narratives, assumptions, and exclusions embedded in technological systems through feminist, queer, or decolonial lenses.
​
Submissions will be accepted across a wide range of digital formats, including but not limited to: photography, graphic design, film/video (under 7 minutes), soundscapes, podcasts, spoken word, music, audiovisual compositions, and motion-based imagery. ​
All works must be in digital format, suitable for online exhibition and/or in-person presentation (e.g., projection, stereo playback, digital display).
Files should be submitted in standard digital formats (e.g., MP4, JPEG, MP3, PDF, etc.) and must be accessible without proprietary software or specialized hardware.
​
Selected Contributors Will Receive:
-
Travel support to attend the in-person event
-
Exhibition of their work both online and at the in-person event (in a theatre setting)
-
Inclusion in the public program through a short talk, creative presentation, or panel discussion
-
Opportunities to connect with fellow artists, cultural practitioners, and invited guests working across film programming, curatorial practice, scholarship, and creative production
Terms and Conditions
​By submitting to The Festival, the entrant agrees to the following terms and conditions:
​​
-
Originality and Rights
The entrant affirms that they hold all necessary rights, licenses, and clearances for the submitted work, including all visual, audio, and written content. This includes music, images, footage, and any third-party materials. The entrant agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the festival organizers from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from copyright infringement or unauthorized use.
-
Usage Permission
By submitting, the entrant grants The Festival a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to screen and exhibit the selected work in person at the festival event and online via the official project website. This includes the right to present stills, excerpts (up to 30 seconds), and descriptive text for promotional purposes, including social media, festival materials, and press outreach.
-
Withdrawal & Removal
The Festival reserves the right to remove any selected work from the program or website at any time, for reasons including but not limited to technical issues, concerns regarding rights or content, or curatorial necessity. Entrants may also withdraw their submission prior to the final selection date by written request.
-
Content Responsibility
The entrant retains full responsibility for the content of their submission. The Festival does not endorse or take responsibility for views, claims, or representations expressed in submitted works.
-
No Screening Fees
The Festival does not pay screening fees for selected works. However, selected contributors may be eligible for travel support and/or an honorarium depending on participation.
-
Agreement to Terms
Submission to The Festival constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions. Any breach may result in disqualification or removal from the program.