Pitches wanted (metaverse, synthetic humans, virtual worldbuilding, interoperability) | $250 per piece

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: IMMERSE

Deadline: 7 October 2021

We're seeking pitches for our upcoming 5th anniversary issue, Making the Metaverse! Synthetic humans, virtual worldbuilding, interoperability—the sky's the limit with this expansive topic. Check out our call for proposals and pitch us by 10/7. Please send proposals to editor@immerse.news. We pay $250/piece.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

October 2021 will be Immerse’s 5th anniversary: taking inspiration from the critical futurist spirit of the first issue, the theme for our 40th issue is Making the Metaverse.

The theme will launch with an interview between editor Abby Sun and Venice VR Expanded co-curators Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac on the distributed potential of the new Virtual Worlds Gallery section and social VR. This text-based piece will be accompanied by a videographic contribution from a pioneer in VR filmmaking, Little Poe, documenting the Immerse-sponsored World Hop Tour through several Venice VR Expanded virtual worlds. Pieces will be published weekly through the end of November.

We are seeking proposals for pieces of 1200–1500 words that critically and imaginatively reflect on the actors, stakeholders, and potential directions for the collection of technologies, projects, platforms, and dispositions that are currently grouped under “the Metaverse” as a term. These include AR, VR, digital world-building, synthetic humans, NFTs, and more. From our last open call, we accepted proposals from writers such as Julie Fukunaga, Linda Codega, Nicholas O’Brien, Duncan Bass, and others.

For example, questions that interest us include:

• Who is investing in purchasing land in virtual worlds? Who does it build power for?
• What does a life cycle look like in the metaverse?
• How are Indigenous collectives reimagining virtual worlds with Indigenous epistemologies?
• Who is trying to put real people into the metaverse and vice versa?

Our core interest remains centered on how these questions, whether they are continuances or ruptures, affect immersive nonfiction storytelling, projects, and makers. What do “documentary” or “journalism” even mean in these worlds?

In addition, we are searching for a beat reporter to investigate and write regular dispatches about developments such as virtual land purchases, new technologies, and connecting spheres of documentary, games, and journalism which implicate new immersive nonfiction storytelling. If you are interested in this role, send us a letter of interest and links to your previous writing.

Proposals should be 200 words or less in length and submitted by Friday, October 7, 2021 to editor@immerse.news. Accepted proposals will be notified by mid-October. Our standard fee is $250.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Questions / submissions: editor@immerse.news

Website: https://immerse.news