Placeholder OPEN-CALL

A series of single-page HTML works shown one at a time on the kiosk screen at Captive Portal and on cp.oerum.org.

The works (each opens in its own window).

Open call: Placeholder

Placeholder is a series of single-page works for the kiosk screen at Captive Portal, Fredericiagade 12B, Copenhagen, and for the Captive Portal website. A placeholder is something that appears instead of something else. It is not the real thing but a deferral, a proposal, perhaps a kind of hope. It is also standardised and generic, and not meant to be looked at as a work of art. The content is open and, as far as an exhibition allows, unbound by outside agendas.

A work must be a single HTML file containing everything it needs. Images, video, sound, fonts, styles and scripts must be embedded in the file itself, for example as data URIs or inline code. The page must not load anything from the internet or from other files, and it must not send any data anywhere. Works that make network requests will not be shown.

The work can be text, images, animation, short videos, code or anything else that fits within a single page. It must run on its own from the moment it opens. The kiosk has no keyboard, mouse or touch input, so the page should function as a still image, a loop or a process that continues indefinitely.

On the kiosk the page is shown full screen at 1920 × 1080 pixels (1080p, landscape) in a Chromium-based browser. On the website it will be viewed in windows and on screens of other sizes, so the work should either adapt to the window or maintain its proportions and scale to fit. A template that places a 1920 × 1080 area in the centre of the page and scales it to the window is available at placeholder.oerum.org/works/template.html (save the page to get the file). The file must not exceed 2 MB. Any browser incompatibility or other issues that arise will be considered part of the work.

Send the file together with a title, your name, a short description of no more than 200 words, and a link to your website if you have one, to by 15 October 2026. We will try to include as many submissions as possible. Each selected work will be published on cp.oerum.org and shown on the kiosk screen for at least one week, alongside the occasional bookshops held at Captive Portal. Submission is free, and no fee is paid for selected works. Artists retain all rights to their work. Captive Portal reserves the right to decline works it considers unsuitable.

Owing to other circumstances, we are unable to answer questions, offer technical help or provide anything beyond what is described here.