Hi all, the due date is nearing, but this will interest many of you.
The Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art is a highly eclectic
festival held annually at the University of Minnesota. It differs
tremendously from most other university festivals in the USA,
welcoming all styles of electronic music and arts for concert hall,
gallery, and club performances.
Please direct inquiries to sparkfst@umn.edu, rather than to me. Best wishes, Michael Berkowski http://www.berkowski.net/
Apologies for cross postings... call also attached as PDF...
University of Minnesota School of Music, Noel Zahler, Director Announces
2007 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art
Douglas Geers, Director West Bank Arts Quarter, University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus Minneapolis, MN February 20-25
CALL FOR COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, and PRESENTERS
Submission Deadline: September 30, 2006 (postmark)
The University of Minnesota School of Music is proud to present the
2007 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, February 20-25. The
festival will be held on the Minneapolis campus of the University of
Minnesota (USA) and neighboring Minneapolis performing arts venues,
and will feature guest artists Morton Subotnick, Richard Devine, and
others to be announced.
Now in its fifth year, the Spark Festival showcases the newest
groundbreaking works of digital music and art. Last years festival
included innovative works by over one hundred international composers
and artists, including featured guest artists Alvin Lucier and
Scanner. Leading scholars and technology specialists also presented
papers relating to new technology and creativity. Audiences for the
concerts, installations, and lectures last year totaled approximately
4,000 people and garnered multiple mentions in local and national media.
Spark invites submissions of art, dance, theater, and music works
incorporating new media, including electroacoustic concert music,
experimental electronica, theatrical and dance works, installations,
kinetic sculpture, artbots, video, and other non-traditional genres.
Spark also invites submission of scholarly papers on Collaborative
Arts, Interactivity, Cognition, Compositional and Artistic Process,
Social and Ethical Issues in the Arts, Art, Music, Video, Film,
Animation, Theater, Dance, Innovative Use of Technology in Education,
Scientific Visualization, Virtual Reality, intermedia composition,
performance, human-computer interaction, software/hardware
development, aesthetics, and history and alltopics related to the
creation of new media art and music. All accepted papers will be
published as part of the Spark proceedings. Please see
http://www.spark.cla.umn.edu/media.html for a PDF copy of the Spark
2006 proceedings and program.
MUSIC SUBMISSIONS Music submissions will be accepted in four categories:
- Concert works: Interactive works for acoustic instruments and
electroacoustics (performance forces are available, TBA)
Electroacoustic works with and without performers. Performance venues
will accommodate 2-8 channel works and works with video. Although
there is no strict limit of duration, pieces of fifteen minutes or
less are encouraged.
- "Spark Nitelife: Experimental electronic performances in a
"club-style" venue. Performers of various styles will be considered,
including those influenced by IDM, hip-hop, glitch, jazz, and etc.
Selected performers will be given sets of 15-30 minutes. Performance
venue will accommodate stereo sound and video.
Installations: [See "Art Works" below]
Music with video [See Art Works below]
ART WORKS Submissions will be accepted in three categories:
- Installations and gallery works: A number of installation and
gallery exhibitions will be mounted in various spaces on the UMN
campus, including the Weisman Art Museum. Please include technical and
space requirements with submission. Installations may be physical
objects, video and/or sound projections, or combinations thereof.
Artists may be required to provide some or all of necessary technology
to mount installations.
- Video: Experimental video works will be screened at multiple Spark
events. Videos featuring digital music compositions (two-channel or
Dolby 5.1) are welcome, but this is not required. Although there is no
strict limit of duration, pieces of twelve minutes or less are
encouraged. Please submit on DVD (NTSC) or DVD data disk in mpg, mov,
or avi file format.
- Theater/Dance: A number of theatrical and dance works incorporating
new technologies will be programmed at Spark 2006, with a special
interest in shorter works that can be integrated into programs with
music and video works. In addition, although not confirmed as of this
writing, we hope to produce at least one performance in a dance
theater with video projection and an Internet 2 connection. Please
include performance venue and technical requirements with submissions.
PAPERS
Technical papers, lecture/demonstration, and workshop submissions that
deal with topics relating to creating arts and music with new
technology are encouraged, including Collaborative Arts,
Interactivity, Cognition, Compositional and Artistic Process, Social
and Ethical Issues in the Arts, Art, Music, Video, Film, Animation,
Theater, Dance, Innovative Use of Technology in Education, Scientific
Visualization, Virtual Reality, intermedia composition, performance,
human-computer interaction, software/hardware development, aesthetics,
and history.
Paper presentations will consist of a twenty-minute presentation and
five minutes of Q/A, and all accepted authors must attend to present
their papers.
Submissions should consist of a two-page abstract with bibliography.
Camera-ready papers will be due on November 1, 2006.
Individuals may submit a maximum of one paper and one
lecture/demonstration, and these will be submitted online. More
information about the submission process will be available soon on the
Spark 2007 website when the online submission procedure has been
activated. All accepted papers will be published as part of the Spark
proceedings.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Applicants are invited to submit one work per category in up to three
categories for consideration. All applicants must complete an online
submission form on the Spark Festival website and include their
submission number(s) with any physical media sent via postal mail. The
submissions website will be at
http://spark.cla.umn.edu/submissions.html and will be activated in
late August. More details about the submission process will be
available on the Spark 2007 website when the online submission
procedure has been activated.
Regarding music and other performance works: Performing resources will
be drawn from the University of Minnesota and Twin Cities area
musicians. However, availability of musicians will be taken into
consideration when selecting works, and therefore applicants are
encouraged to bring their own performers when possible. More
information about available performers will be posted on
http://www.sparkfestival.org when the online submission procedure has
been activated.
Composers and artists whose works are selected for inclusion are
strongly encouraged to attend the festival. Scholars whose papers or
demonstrations are accepted will be required to attend Spark to
deliver their presentation.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Selected works will be announced by November 1, and travel and
accommodations information will be posted on
http://www.sparkfestival.org by the same date.
Submission deadline is September 30 (postmark). More information and
the online submissions procedure will be posted soon on the Spark 2007
website at http://www.sparkfestival.org. Questions can be directed to
the Spark hosts at sparkfst@umn.edu .