The City of Santa Clarita (City) is seeking an artist for its Augmented Reality (AR) Public Art Project. Now accepting proposals for a series often thematic artworks which invoke interactivity, storytelling, and site-specificity to create dialogue with the surroundings and audience. Artwork may be informed by the environment, community, and history in which viewers encounter them.

The selected digital artworks will be experienced and supported as virtual 3D or 2D art that can be viewed using a smart device. The app will allow users to view virtual art installations geo-positioned around the Old Town Newhall Arts and Entertainment District. Location of artwork will be disclosed to app users in advance (i.e. alerts when near an installation or a more "Pokémon" styled gamified experience, where users are challenged to find and collect all artworks.)

The City is centrally located, just 30 minutes north of downtown Los Angeles. The City boasts yearround fun, abundant sunshine, a unique blend of upscale sophistication and small-town charm, historic elements, destination dining, signature shopping, outdoor adventure, and a variety of world-class events, scenic drives, and attractions.

Old Town Newhall is known to be the historic core of Santa Clarita as it is the oldest neighborhood within the City. From the time Charles Mentry began operating the first successful oil well in the West, Pico No. 4, through the arrival of western film star William S. Hart and beyond, the City has been known as a place where people come to achieve their dreams and raise their families. At the center of it all is Newhall, which was incorporated along with Valencia, Saugus, and Canyon Country to form the City in 1987.

As time went on, Santa Clarita's development in new master housing plans and shopping centers led to a significant growth in population. Although certain areas were becoming new, the older areas continued to age. In order to proactively preserve the rich history of Newhall and develop the area into the City's premier Arts and Entertainment District, the Santa Clarita City Council adopted the Old Town Newhall Specific Plan in 2005.

Bringing the right mix of retail, restaurants, and entertainment was crucial for the redevelopment of Old Town Newhall and is now home to more than 60 different businesses. A new public library was built in the vibrant and reenergized area and the City opened an incubator to grow creative and technology focused businesses in the heart of this Arts and Entertainment District. Today, Old Town Newhall has a variety of spots to check out such as the Walk of Western Stars and The MAIN.

CALL SUMMARY / DESIGN GUIDELINES:

• Artwork is encouraged to connect with the history of the Old Town Newhall area.
• Special consideration for site specific, interactivity, and storytelling proposals.  
• Creativity and innovation of design are encouraged.
• Artwork must be an original design.
• Artwork must be suitable for viewing by all ages.
• Artwork may not be used for advertisement or to promote business or product.
• Designs must not include any breach of intellectual property, trademarks, brands, business names, corporate or organizational branding or images of drugs.
• Artwork can be of any digital medium, as long as it follows all technical file requirements.

PROJECT GUIDELINES: Accepted artwork that differs significantly from artwork represented will be disqualified.

CAFÉ (callforentry.org) accepted files: Images: JPG files only, minimum of 1,200 pixels on the longest side and 5 MB maximum.

Video: 3GP, WMV, AVI, MOV, ASF, MPG, MP4, M2T, MKV, M2TS; min. resolution; 100 MB maximum

The selected semi-finalist's artwork will be required to resubmit their files in the following format to be input into the app.
Accepted formats: OBJ or FBX

• Maximum polycount: around 50K polygons. If artist uses procedural content like particle systems, reduce the polycount drastically, and particle systems should be kept simple with few particles (using this kind of effect artist should make it inside unity and export it as a unity package).
• If artwork has animations, the number of bones per vertex should be kept at 1 bone.
• The pivot of the object must be centered at the bottom of the 3D model at the ground level. If the 3D model has different textures, ideally, they should be packed in one single atlas of textures, or as minimal as possible

Artwork designed to be an interactive AR experience, content should be developed within a popular AR software (below) and exported in a standard format: FBX, glTF 2.0, .x3d, .dae

• spark AR
• Vuforia
• AR Toolkit
• AR Core    
• Tango

Artwork designed to be mostly viewed with minimal interaction (i.e. simple image rotation and/or selfdriven animated effects) then work can be created using a popular 3D software (below). Files should still be exported in a standard format: FBX, glTF, 2.0, .x3d, .dae.

• Creo View
• Blender
• Unity/3 dMax/Maya:
• Sketchfab
• Three.js
• Maya
• Microsoft Paint     
• Sketchup

Note: While the above support 3D formats, please be aware that very large/complex 3D models (e.g.}models with very high polygon count) may not work, or work well, for mobile applications. The smallest possible file size (weight) is always preferable for the best user experience on mobile.

Note: 2D artwork can be submitted for an AR experience but it should be developed inside a popular AR tool supporting the use of 2D assets. Exceptions can be made to allow for directly submitted JPEG, PNG or MP4 files.

• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Canva

TENTATIVE TIMELINE:

• March 26, 2021 at 11p.m. PST - Application Due
• April 2021 - Selections made by Artist Selection Committee - One artist to create 10 artworks
• May 2021 - Arts Commission and City Council review and approval of selections
• June 2021 - Selected artists notified

LOCATIONS: Locations are provided HERE.

BUDGET: A $5,000 honorarium will be provided to the selected artist to create the series of six artworks identified in submitted proposal or proof of concept. The full payment will occur after the project is completed. The selected artist will receive recognition on SantaClaritaArts.com, Public Arts App, and the City's social media outlets. A press release will be shared with local news agencies.

ELIGIBILITY: Artists 18 years of age or older are invited to submit an individual or collaborative artist application. Open to artist(s) living and working in the United States. Artist must fill out a W9 and provide a mailing address in the U.S. for delivery of payment. 

To APPLY: The required materials must be submitted electronically by March 26, 2021 through CaFÉ (callforentry.com).

1. Resume or CV
2. Artist Statement
3. CAFE Portfolio should include three-five (3-5) past artworks
4. Detailed project proposal or proof-of-concept for a series often artworks. (Upload to CAFE in a sperate file)

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

• Visual impact
• Interactivity
• Interpretation and creativity  
• Composition and design
• Craftsmanship
• Design criteria and eligibility guidelines met
• Clarity of project-specific intent, relevant professional experience, and artistic vision, as expressed in Resume/CV, and Artistic Statement

ARTIST RESOURCES / SANTA CLARITA COMMUNITY: Links regarding the community and history of the Santa Clarita area:

• City of Santa Clarita — www.santa-clarita.com
• Public Art App - https://scpublicart.goodbarber.com
• SantaClaritaArts.com - http://santaclaritaarts.com/
• Old Town Newhall - http://oldtownnewhall.com/
• Visit Santa Clarita - http://visitsantaclarita.com/
• Demographics - https://www.santa-clarita.com/cityhall/departments/communitydevelopment/demographics
• Community Profile - https://www.santa-clarita.com/city-hall/3 Oth-anniversary​

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria