Reckless Abandon

Description

Are we in a time of abandonment or an age of abandon?

Reckless Abandon is an invitation to create within abandonment (relinquished, deserted, forgotten) and with abandon (spontaneous, impassioned, wild). Rediscover what’s been discarded: lost media; WIPs squirreled away on old hard drives; forgotten bookmarks; unsent letters; ghost towns; obsolete technologies; identities shed like old skin. Lose yourself in the freedom of letting go: deliberately broken rules; late-night texts; Wikipedia rabbit holes; punk rock; a one-way ticket to somewhere new; bacchanalian bonfires; frolicking through fields.

Recklessly, we push forward, shutting down indecision and consequences. Our unrestrained experimentation can be clarity disguised as impulsivity, a refusal of artificial restraints in favor of learning who we are, sharing raw truths, or rebelling against injustice. But it can also be dangerous–acting without awareness of community, environment, or personal well-being. In a moment of broken alliances and state violence, recklessness and abandonment invade our daily reality. Some rules are meant to be broken; others are there for a reason.

Reckless Abandon is an online group exhibition that explores this tension, testing the edge between restraint and release. Return to what was left behind—and see what still remains.

Topics

Unfinished works
Nostalgia
Punk subculture
Self and self-discovery
Presence/absence
Ghost towns
Obsolescence
Lost media
Frolics
Liberation and protest
Letting go
Planetary stewardship/exploitation
Censorship
Intuition and gut

Call to Action—Submit Your Artwork

Reckless Abandon is a pop-up exhibition presented by the New Media Artspace of Baruch College. We invite artists to explore these themes and topics, and we are accepting proposals for artwork in progress or existing artworks that fall within the exhibition subjects. We encourage proposals that are inspired by these ideas or go beyond them. Selected works will be shown in a virtual pop-up exhibition.

Mediums

For this exhibition, we are accepting new media art projects that span video, audio, Unity (WebGL), p5.js, 3D, network performances, photography, and more.

Deadlines

DEADLINE: Proposals must be submitted by April 3, 2026, 11:59 p.m. EST. Final artworks must be submitted by April 28, 2026, 11:59 p.m. EST.