Applications will be reviewed by a panel of 7 jurors invited to participate in this process by The Autoptic Foundation

For our first two shows in 2013 and 2015, applications were reviewed exclusively by members of The Autoptic Foundation. While we do believe we assembled the best group of exhibitors we could have at the time, we also realized that having the same people reviewing applications for every show would very quickly lead to the show’s roster of exhibitors becoming familiar and stale. So, starting in 2018, to bring in fresh, diverse perspectives to the curation process, The Autoptic Foundation has invited a panel of 7 Jurors to review, vote and curate the applications received. We will be announcing the 7 jurors for the 2024 Autoptic Festival soon!

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling, first-in, first-reviewed basis starting on April 30th, 2024

Starting on April 30th, 2024, jurors will begin reviewing and voting on applications. They will review the applications in the order that they are received. Please note that while we will continue to accept waitlist applications after April 30th, we will not able to guarantee that your application will be reviewed unless we receive it on or before April 30th.

The voting process is a pseudo-blind, binary vote.

When reviewing the applications, jurors will simply vote YES or NO on each applicant. If a juror feels that they would like to see an applicant’s work represented at the 2024 Autoptic Festival, they will vote, “yes”. If they feel otherwise, they will vote “no”. Jurors will be free, (and encouraged), to communicate with one another and discuss their thoughts on the applications.

However, no juror will be obligated to reveal how they voted for any specific application to their fellow jurors, to members of The Autoptic Foundation or the public at large. Our submission system is set up so that jurors will not be able to see how other jurors voted unless another juror decides to communicate their votes elsewhere. In terms of the applications themselves, The Autoptic Foundation will take what steps we can to mask the identity of the applicant from the jurors, but it is always possible that jurors will know the identity of the applicant simply by already being familiar with the applicant’s work.

Applicants will begin to be notified of their application’s status on May 15th, 2024

Once the jurors have completed their voting, all of the applications will be ranked first by their positive vote totals, then by the time of their submission. That ranked application list will then be used to allocate our available tables. If an applicant’s rank is high enough that they can be allocated a table, they will then be asked to confirm that they still plan to exhibit at the 2024 Autoptic Festival and submit any applicable table fees. If an applicant is not allocated a table at that time, they will immediately be placed on our waitlist and notified as soon as possible if and when a table becomes available.

A few notes on table allocation

Because we do not know how many applications we will receive this year and we don’t know what table sizes will be requested by the applicants, we can not say for certain what the vote threshold for table allocation will be. However, in the spirit of openness, we can speak to previous years’ voting and how those table allocations worked out. For all of our previous shows, we received about 300 applications for each show. We were able to allocate tables to about 120 applicants for those shows. This means that during each show, a little less than half of all applicants were allocated tables.

This also means that many applicants had positive vote totals for whom we did not have a table to allocate. We think that this is a testament to the quality of work on display at Autoptic, but we also recognize this means many worthy applicants were not able to get a table at our previous events. This year, we are doing everything we can to increase our table count and make as many tables available to as many deserving applicants as is possible.

As we get closer to the event, we will be able to share specific numbers about table availability and allocation percentages. There is a small number of tables that have pre-allocated. Each juror will be given a table to use to exhibit at the show if they would like to, (though exhibiting is not a requirement for jury members). Members of The Autoptic Foundation will also be allocated a table to use to exhibit at the show.

Questions

If you have any questions about our application and curation process, please contact us at info@autoptic.org. Please note that while we wish to be as helpful and transparent as possible in this process, we will not be able to discuss jury voting records, the vote outcome of specific applications or provide feedback on specific applications.