Legend has it that the British Society of Aesthetics (BSA) was founded in 1960 so that Herbert Read could lead a delegation of British Aestheticians to the International Congress on Aesthetics being held in Athens that year. In recent years the Society has revived its ambition to work within an international and European Community.

Its declared foundational aim is to promote study, research and discussion of the fine arts and related types of experience from a philosophical, psychological, sociological, historical, critical and educational standpoint. The Society's activities include publication of the British Journal of Aesthetics and a newsletter, an annual conference held in Oxford, regional conferences, joint conferences with Aestheticians from Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and Germany, lecture series, and grants to support aesthetics events.

For information on the Society's current Executive Committee, please click: here.

To read a memoir of the Society by T.J. Diffey, please click: here.

Cover Competition

COMPETITION TO DESIGN A COVER FOR THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS

The British Journal of Aesthetics (BJA) is holding a competition open to students on full-time undergraduate or graduate courses at art schools in the UK to design a cover for the journal, which is published by Oxford University Press (OUP), both in print and online. A new overall cover design was introduced this year, including an image, generally a black & white photograph of a sculpture or a detail from a print. It will normally but not necessarily be a monochrome image. The covers of the three issues published so far with the new cover design can be found here. Entries to the competition will consist in a .jpeg or .tiff containing an image (henceforth, the “image”), and a cover design incorporating the image (henceforth, the “design”), which can be assembled using a template that can be downloaded here (the template is available in InDesign, Illustrator, Quark and Photoshop). The resolution of the image must be at least 300dpi. There is no restriction on the use of colour. The winning entry will showcase the distinctive style of the artist, while remaining consistent with the series of covers as a whole.

RULES

Read the Rules carefully before submitting your entry, to ensure you understand and accept them. Submitting an entry in the competition constitutes acceptance of the Rules.

PROMOTER. The competition promoter is the British Journal of Aesthetics (‘BJA’).

ELIGIBILITY. To be eligible to enter the competition, you must be enrolled on a full-time undergraduate or graduate course at an art school in the UK on 31 October 2009. The BJA reserves the right to verify eligibility.

HOW TO ENTER. Entries to the competition must be submitted by email to: bjacover@queens.ox.ac.uk. Entrants should submit a .jpeg or .tiff file containing their image, as well as a .jpeg or .pdf file of the cover design incorporating their image. All entries must be accompanied by a .pdf containing a scanned letter, signed by the entrant, stating details of the course in which he or she will be enrolled on 31 October 2009, together with the entrant’s contact details. The closing date is 31 December 2009. Entries which do not meet the entry requirements and entries which are received after the closing date will not be considered.

DATA. Personal data will only be retained and used by the BJA and OUP for the purposes of this competition. Personal data will not be passed on to any other parties without the prior express consent of the data subject.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. The image must be an original, unpublished work that does not contain, incorporate or otherwise use any content, material or element that is owned by a third party or violates a third party’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to the law of copyright or trade marks. It must not be subject to any third party rights or agreement which may require the BJA or OUP to seek permission from or pay any sum of money to any person or entity as a result of its use. By submitting an entry in the competition, each entrant represents and warrants that his or her image meets these criteria.

JUDGING. Each entry will be judged by a panel of judges consisting of the Editor and Associate Editor of the BJA, the Publisher of OUP's philosophy journals, Vanessa Lacey, and the distinguished graphic designer John Morgan. Decisions and rulings of the judges are final and binding. The judges reserve the right not to award the prize if no entry is submitted which they judge worthy of the prize. The judges’ decisions will be final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to their decisions or the competition.

PRIZES. a) Shortlisted designs will be displayed on the BJA website. b) The winning design will be used on the cover of an issue of the BJA due to be published during 2010. The issue will carry a half-page about the winner and his or her work. The winner will receive 5 printed copies of the issue featuring their design, and will also be invited to choose £150-worth of books published by OUP, free of charge. The winner and shortlisted entrants will be notified by email in the week beginning 1 February 2010.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. Each entrant will retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in the image submitted (including moral rights). However, by entering the competition, each entrant grants to the BJA on a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide basis, any necessary and relevant permissions relating to the reproduction of their entry in any media, as part of the publication and promotion of the journal. Each entrant accepts that the BJA and OUP reserve the right to alter and/or adapt the entry for the purposes of the production and promotion of the journal.

WARRANTY. Each entrant warrants that their entries are their own original work and, as such, they are the sole and exclusive owner and rights holder of their image and that they have the right to grant all required licenses.

Print these rules as a PDF.

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