Words Per Minute micro-paid Open Call

WORDS PER MINUTE (WPM) is a paid, open-call for a text installation project at Middlesbrough Art Week 2024. We are seeking short text contributions to show on an electronic, solar-powered traffic management display that will be situated in Middlesbrough during the festival. 

The signage format lends itself to short texts (13 characters per line, 6 lines). Entries are paid at a rate of words per minute (WPM). Text should be submitted for consideration by 12:00 Monday 2nd of September. See below for the full application process. 

Middlesbrough Art Week (MAW), the North East's largest annual contemporary art festival returns from the 26th September to 5th October 2024. This year’s festival, called IN THE NOW AND THE FAR, seeks to negotiate the overlap and differences between cultural production and political action. Who has the right to take action? What does art & social practice look like? When is the moment and who is in the room? We are thinking about the attitudes, frameworks and timescales that inform the way that we make and share work, and in turn, how this helps us reimagine the communities we live in. We are also considering how uneven distribution (of power, time, resource, capacity) has shaped social movements of the past, and how this in turn might act as the imaginative scaffold for the future.

How to apply:

Please email projectmanager@theauxiliary.co.uk with the subject line ‘Words Per Minute’ by 12:00pm 2nd September 2024. Email should include:

• your text submission

• full name

• link to your website / social media  

If more than 20 people apply, a random draw will take place and if chosen you will be notified by September 6th 2024. 

All contributors will be acknowledged via the festival website publicity. Contributors will be asked to email an invoice at a rate of £1.60 per word.

How we work out the rate:

Contributions are paid at the rate suggested by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) for press releases (£600 per 1000 words). The example text ‘ARTWORKS HERE EXPECT DELAYS’ uses four words and would be paid £6.40 total (4 x 1.60 = £6.40).

Please note, submitted text can be a maximum of 13 characters per line (including spaces) and up to 6 lines. Please see below for examples.