COMMUNITIES & CONTESTS
Springtime 2024 contests open on April 1st and close on May 15th, 2024.
To allow sufficient time to evaluate and authenticate entries, awards will be determined by June 10th, 2024.
Four Monetary Awards of $50–One in Each Category
Publication Award: Top Five Creations in Each Category
The contests are invitations: learn the game; master the system; challenge your detail-oriented thinking;
and join a global conversation about language, mind, and reality.
ENTER a CONTEST
Send image files, sound files, or PDF file of writings to Synergy Creative Learning Solutions at synergy.creative.learning@gmail.com. Include your name, preferred email, city/state, and a school with which you are affiliated.
{Contests run in two age categories: {1} people in grades 6-12;
and {2} members of the general public, college-aged and older}.
Four Contest Categories
Writing (Grades 7-12) / Writing (College – Public 18+)
Visual Art (Grades 7-12) / Visual Art (College – Public 18+)
Nova Musica: if you create a new sound, note, or arrangement of notes, and if you give this musical creation a new word, please feel encouraged to enter the word in the writing contest.
Nova Scientia: if you develop a new word to expand the lexicon in a field of science, then please feel welcome to enter the new scientific term in the writing contest.
Nova Mathematica: if you create a new number, and if you assign to that new number a particular name, then please feel invited to enter the new number/word in the writing contest.
Writers: Create a new word {See the example word on the “Living Lexicon” page of this site). Give the word at least one definition and one part-of-speech designation. Apply the word in an original paragraph-length passage. Describe in detail the origins of the word, the stages of your creative process, and the context for this word’s emergence and application(s). Send a single PDF file of these writings to Synergy Creative Learning Solutions at synergy.creative.learning@gmail.com. Include your name, preferred email, city of residence, and a school or business with which you are affiliated. {This contest runs in two age categories: {1} people in grades 7-12; and {2} members of the general public, college-aged and older}.
Visual Artists: Create one work or short series of works in any visual medium, including film (2-10 minutes). A qualified entry will engage the subject of origin and change in representational orders. The work may or may not center on a single idea, word, or form. The visual art contest does not require any additional material, but the artist may elect to include a title, descriptions of method and materials, and the context for the artwork’s development. Please do not mail the original artwork. Send high-quality digital images of the work (or a link to an online gallery or theater) to synergy.creative.learning@gmail.com. Include your name, preferred email, city of residence, and a school or business with which you are affiliated. {This contest runs in two age categories: {1} people in grades 7-12; and {2} members of the general public, college-aged and older}.
2024 springtime contests open on April 1st and close on May 15th, 2024.
To allow sufficient time to evaluate and authenticate entries,
awards will be determined by June 10th, 2024.
Four Monetary Awards of $50–One in Each Category
Publication Award: Top Five Creations in Each Category
Official Rules
{1} All work must be original. Reference to others’ creations within the original work must include fair and clear citations.
{2} Entries must be submitted to synergy.creative.learning@gmail.com by (or any time before) midnight on May 15th, 2024. Late entries will be considered for future contests or returned to the creator for submission at a later time.
{3} All entries will be properly vetted for originality.
{4} Creators/contest entrants will keep 100% ownership and future publication rights for their entries. Note that winning entries will be published and promoted on this website, with a $50 award for the top entry in each of the four contest categories.
{5} Awards will come in the form of a money order via insured mail delivery or a secure electronic transfer (e.g., Venmo), honoring the preference of each of the four contest winners.
Please note: Evaluators will consider entries in two rounds: Mark Spring (Founder and Creative Director) will assess all entries; second, Dr. Spring will convene relevant panels of evaluators to finalize placements for publication and monetary awards.
INVITATION to the CONTESTS
We are fountains of language. The world’s thousands of languages attest to the marvelous variety of human thought and evince the continuing process of symbol-creation that enables us to explore reality through imagination.
In celebration of our inherently creative nature, and in hope of translating elements from the silent and singular inner libraries of each person, please feel invited to take part in one of the four first annual Living Lexicon contests.
Feel free to try the creative process alone or in a community (e.g., in a class), conducting each exercise for its own sake, which is the ultimate aim of this venture: to energize thinking about language and creativity that carries into our communities and our inner lives.
Creators’ Resources
The writings and contest descriptions on this page can sufficiently prepare creators to participate in each open contest.
Materials of many kinds, however, with no direct connection to this program and contest–works of literature, philosophy, art, science, music, and math–will afford creative leverage to entrants in either of the competition categories. I expect to learn a great deal from the field of contest entrants, and to the greatest extent possible, I will gather this bounty of learning and creation for public presentation after evaluations are complete.
For all those who are interested in learning more about philosophy and exercises related to Living Lexicon, and for all those who are interested in leading peers or teaching classes of students in discussions of Living Lexicon, the following supplemental materials may prove beneficial and stimulating. Each item in this list of resources (some of which are free, and others of which come modestly priced) pairs with a link to an external platform or to a page on this site where one can find (and, in some cases, purchase) these materials. Teachers, please feel free to share any item with all of your classes in each year you wish to present the material(s).
Forthcoming Additions to the Living Lexicon Library
[1] Teaching and Learning the Living Lexicon System (Interactive Video Module: I of XV) {$20}
Teachers: Following completion, present this module for two CEU credit hours of professional development training.
[2] FREE ESSAY: “Living Lexicon and Superintelligent A.I.“
[3] Setting a Stage for Living Lexicon (Video Module for Teachers and Students in Grades 6-8) {$20}
Teachers: Following payment and completion, present this module for one CEU credit hour of professional development training.
[4] FREE TEXT: Examples of neologisms and related writings that meet the Writing Contest requirements.
[5] Planting the Seeds of Living Lexicon (Video Module for Teachers and Students in Grades 3-5). {$20}
Teachers: Following payment and completion, present this module for one CEU credit hour of professional development training.
[6] Testing materials and writing prompts related to the free essay, “Living Lexicon and Superintelligent A.I.” {$15}
[7] Testing materials and writing prompts related to the free text of Writing Contest examples. {$15}
[8] FREE READINGS LIST: Selections on symbol-creation, language-mind interactions, and language-reality connections.
