What They Are Doing
For many Americans, the concrete elevators that punctuate the Midwest landscape are exceptionally ordinary. And ordinary, man-made landscapes are not typically thought about, but rather simply looked at. It rarely occurs that landscape includes everything from golf courses to garbage dumps, suburban cul-de-sacs to highway overpasses, historic landmarks to giant electric signs that signify the 100th billion hamburger sold, and city skylines to farmer's silos. According to Mae Thielgaard Watts they can ‘read the landscape' similar to reading a book. If landscape is their collective autobiography, there is much to be read in the now obsolete structures that once provided the basis for an entire network of natural and cultural infrastructures. By repurposing this structure as an important component in the evolving landscape of their nation and world, a platform for regional public education about urban development trends can be created.

A New Purpose
In collaboration with The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Emerging Terrain is soliciting submissions nationwide for 20'x80' images to hang on the exterior of 16 silos that comprise a highly visible vacant grain elevator near downtown Omaha. Final banners will interpret and represent the interrelatedness between land use, food, and agriculture as embodied in the elevator. After residing on the Omaha elevator for 3-4 months, the banners will travel to three other prominent vacant elevators throughout the state.

A Dinner to Remember
In honor of fall harvest, a dinner table will be constructed at the base of the elevator, for the entirety of the structure's length, to host an epic dinner in celebration of the banner installation and lighting. The event will be orchestrated in collaboration with the Institute for Culinary Arts at Metro Community College. Thanks to our friends at the neighboring Hanscom Park Neighborhood Association, the owners of the elevator, Silo Extreme Outdoor Adventures, and the City of Omaha, the event will also kick off the continuation of the Field Club Trail past the derelict elevator.

Call for Submissions
I-480 comprise the most iconic elevator in the city. This landmark structure occupies a visible location seen daily by over 76,000 vehicles, borders a residential neighborhood, is the southern terminus of the crosstown Field Club Trail and several of the silos are being used as rock climbing walls.

The Stored Potential mural project will repurpose the relic's exterior by inviting creative designs for 20'x80' banners to cover one side of a silo. Images will be selected based on context, originality, larger scope of vision and how individual panels combine with one another to form a new façade that interprets the interrelatedness between land use, food, and agriculture as embodied in the elevator. By combining individual interpretations through the assembled
nature of the elevator (single silos comprising a whole structure), a new collective, although temporary, appearance will be constructed. A 300-person dinner event onsite will celebrate the evening of mural unveiling and uplighting.

Submissions for consideration should complete an application packet that includes the following individual pages, submitted as a single PDF not to exceed 3MB:
a) applicants name, address, phone, email
b) one paragraph of text succinctly explaining the submission
c) maximum 3 individual explanatory drawings and or images of the proposal, and
c) signed Terms and Conditions for copyright

The selected entries will be printed on mesh and secured to the structure via stainless steel concrete anchors. Therefore, selected submissions will be responsible for providing extremely high resolution images for print.

S ubmi ss i o n D e a d l i n e : 11:59pm CST May 15, 2010 Single PDF submission emailed to: [email protected]
Jury Deliberations: May 22, 2010
E x h i b i t io n : October 1 - December 31, 2010
Awa r ds : $500 to each selected entry and two tickets to the opening event
J u r o r s :
Jamie Hand, Van Alen Institute
Jeff Day, MIN DAY Architects
JD Hutton, Nebraska Arts Council Mason White, InfraNet Lab, Lateral Office, Bracket Magazine jury to be hosted by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts