ISSN 3070-8869 · Open Access

STRATUM Journal publishes scholarly and critical work in contemporary art, performance, visual culture, moving image, curatorial practice, artistic research, and critical humanities.

The journal is especially interested in writing that examines artistic practice as a site of research, embodied knowledge, cultural memory, social relation, historical pressure, aesthetic experimentation, and public thought. STRATUM welcomes work that moves across disciplines while maintaining conceptual clarity, methodological care, and attention to form.

Open Access • Seasonal • Peer-reviewed research articles and editorially reviewed sections

Aims

STRATUM aims to support writing that moves between artistic practice, scholarly inquiry, and critical reflection.

The journal provides a space for research articles, critical essays, reviews, interviews, artist portfolios, field notes, and selected experimental forms that engage contemporary artistic and cultural practice with depth, precision, and editorial care.

STRATUM is committed to accessible criticism, plural knowledge traditions, and editorial approaches that question inherited cultural hierarchies. The journal values writing that can hold complexity while remaining legible to artists, scholars, curators, writers, and culturally engaged readers.

We publish to widen access, deepen understanding, and support long-term cultural presence for contemporary artistic and critical practice.

Scope

STRATUM welcomes submissions in areas including, but not limited to:

Performance studies
Dance studies
Contemporary art and visual culture
Moving image and experimental media
Curatorial practice and exhibition studies
Sound, installation, and interdisciplinary practice
Ritual, embodiment, and cultural memory
Asian and diasporic art practices
Postcolonial and decolonial methodologies
Feminist, queer, disability, and ecological perspectives
Media culture and digital vernaculars
Artistic research and practice-based inquiry
Public art, social practice, and institutional critique
Critical theory and global humanities

The journal is particularly interested in work that examines how artistic practices are made, situated, documented, interpreted, and circulated across institutions, publics, geographies, languages, and cultural systems.

Submission Categories

Research Articles

Research Articles are peer-reviewed scholarly articles that make an original contribution to contemporary art, performance, visual culture, moving image, curatorial practice, critical theory, or global arts and humanities.

Recommended length: 5,000–8,000 words

Research Articles should include:

Title
Abstract of 150–250 words
5–7 keywords
Author name
Author affiliation
ORCID, when available
Main text
Notes, if applicable
References or bibliography
Image captions and permissions, when applicable
Short author biography

Research Articles should present a clear argument, engage relevant scholarship, and demonstrate methodological care. They may include visual, archival, field-based, practice-based, ethnographic, theoretical, or curatorial materials when these support the research contribution.

Research Articles are subject to peer review after initial editorial screening.

Reviews

Reviews are editorially reviewed responses to exhibitions, performances, films, screenings, books, festivals, public programs, or other cultural events.

Recommended length: 1,200–2,500 words

Reviews should move beyond description. They should offer critical attention to the work, its context, its form, and its artistic or cultural stakes.

Reviews should include relevant identifying information, such as:

Artist or author
Title of exhibition, performance, book, film, or program
Venue, publisher, festival, or organizer
Location
Dates, when applicable
Curator, director, editor, or other relevant credits

Artist Features & Portfolios

Artist Features & Portfolios are editorially framed presentations of artistic practice, research process, documentation, visual work, performance work, moving image, installation, or project-based inquiry.

Recommended length: 1,000–3,000 words
Recommended images: 6–15 images, depending on the project

Submissions may include:

Artist statement or project statement
Critical or curatorial introduction
Portfolio images
Captions and credits
Documentation notes
Links to video, audio, or time-based work
Artist biography
Image and media permissions

This section is designed for artistic practices that require visual presence, contextual framing, and critical introduction. Submissions should not function only as promotional portfolios. They should provide enough context for readers to understand the practice, project, method, or research process.

Field Notes & Public Discourse

Field Notes & Public Discourse are shorter editorially reviewed reflections on contemporary art, culture, institutions, public life, emerging cultural conditions, public programs, or field-level observations.

Recommended length: 1,000–2,500 words

This section supports writing that is timely, situated, and critically attentive without becoming news coverage or event promotion.

Field Notes may respond to public programs, artistic encounters, institutional shifts, cultural debates, local contexts, or emerging conditions in the field.

Critical Essays

Critical Essays are editorially reviewed essays that develop a critical argument, interpretive framework, or cultural analysis.

Recommended length: 2,500–5,000 words

Critical Essays may address contemporary art, performance, dance, visual culture, moving image, exhibitions, media culture, public discourse, artistic research, cultural memory, institutions, or critical theory.

Critical Essays may be more flexible in form than Research Articles, but they should still demonstrate specificity, clarity, and critical depth. References are encouraged when relevant.

Interviews & Conversations

Edited conversations with artists, curators, scholars, filmmakers, writers, choreographers, researchers, cultural workers, and interdisciplinary practitioners.

This section documents process, method, artistic formation, research, and the conditions surrounding contemporary practice.

Interviews & Conversations

Interviews & Conversations are edited exchanges with artists, curators, scholars, filmmakers, writers, choreographers, researchers, cultural workers, and interdisciplinary practitioners.

Recommended length: 2,000–6,000 words

Interview submissions may include:

Proposed interview title
Participant names and affiliations
Short introduction
Edited conversation transcript
Images or documentation, when relevant
Participant bios
Confirmation that participants have consented to publication

STRATUM may edit interviews for clarity, length, structure, and readability. Substantial edits should preserve the meaning, voice, and integrity of the conversation.

Experimental Writing & Series

Experimental Writing & Series includes serialized writing, letters, fragments, hybrid forms, creative-critical texts, and other editorial formats when they align with STRATUM’s intellectual and artistic scope.

Recommended length: flexible, depending on form

Submissions in this section should still have intentional structure, editorial clarity, and a meaningful relationship to the journal’s scope. Experimental form should deepen the work rather than replace critical or artistic precision.

What STRATUM Looks For

STRATUM looks for work with clear stakes, careful language, and a strong relationship between form and thought.

We are interested in submissions that:

Develop a specific argument or critical position
Engage artistic practice with care and precision
Situate work within relevant cultural, historical, social, or theoretical contexts
Attend to method, form, embodiment, image, material, language, or site
Open difficult ideas without flattening them
Contribute to contemporary art, performance, visual culture, or critical humanities discourse

STRATUM welcomes work from artists, scholars, curators, critics, writers, filmmakers, choreographers, and interdisciplinary researchers.

What STRATUM Does Not Prioritize

STRATUM does not prioritize purely promotional writing, press releases, unframed portfolio submissions, event announcements, general opinion pieces without critical development, or writing that relies on broad claims without close attention to practice, context, or form.

We are open to experimental and hybrid writing, but the work should still have editorial clarity, intentional structure, and a meaningful relationship to the journal’s scope.

Review Model

Research Articles are subject to peer review.

PEER REVIEWED

Research Articles are subject to peer review.

EDITORIALLY REVIEWED

Critical Essays, Reviews, Interviews & Conversations, Artist Features & Portfolios, Field Notes, and Experimental Writing are reviewed editorially.

This structure allows STRATUM to support rigorous scholarship while making space for forms of knowledge that emerge from artistic practice, curatorial work, performance, image-making, and cultural production.

About STRATUM Journal