CALL FOR WORKS:
Futuristic Music Design Challenge
A live competition at Yuri’s Night Bay Area
presented by createdigitalmusic.com
Deadline: 11:59 PM Monday, April 7, East Coast time. (No exceptions!)
Online submission
Web entries accepted from around the world for the Web showcase
Limited entries will be chosen to compete live –
To compete for the prizes, those entries must be present at Yuri’s Night Bay Area, Saturday, April 12
Submit DIY music performance projects - using custom software and/or hardware - for a live performance battle at the Yuri’s Night Bay Area party on April 12, sponsored by Yuri’s Night and createdigitalmusic.com. Compete for awards including a Yamaha Tenori-On grand prize.
BACKGROUND:
In science fiction and science fact, music has been central to finding a common language to speak to the universe. Music from Bach to gamelan has traveled into space on the Voyager spacecraft. In the digital age, musical interfaces are also often the best way to understand how to interface with technology and information.
Musicians have led many of the most innovative digital technological breakthroughs — the first digital synthesizer (at Bell Labs in the 50s), breakthroughs in modular electronic systems (modular synthesizers of the 60s), pioneering advances in digital storage and processing, unusual wireless interfaces and gestural controls decades ahead of the Nintendo Wii, and touch- and multi-touch tools years before the iPhone and Microsoft Surface.
But that’s all in the past. This is a design challenge for the future. We want to hear the best, most forward-thinking, generally coolest, Second Space Age-worthy instruments and digital music interfaces. If aliens land — as they did when met by a classic ARP synthesizer in Close Encounters — we want to be able to give them a great show.
How to enter
We’re looking for designs of “instruments” — whether self-contained, electrically-powered devices or hardware interfaces for computers. That can include tangible interfaces, physical computing, hacked hardware, custom-built synths and electronics, and other gadgets. These must use at least some custom software and/or hardware.
You are limited to one computer and one input device — but the “input device” can be as complex as an interactive table. If that sounds vague, just remember — ultimately, the judges and audience decide. Wow them, and all will be well.
Artists must sign up in advance. We will have a limited number of slots. The best proposals will be chosen by the staff of createdigitalmusic.com to compete in San Francisco at Yuri’s Night.
Set up, plug in. You’ll have a limited set up time.
Play. You have three minutes to perform.
JUDGING
A panel of judges with expertise in music and interaction design will judge the entries — and are encouraged to be biased by crowd response. (If you’ve got friends, tell them to cheer really loudly.)
AWARDS
Winners will be announced at Yuri’s Night, with a grand prize winner and honorable mention awards for each category.
http://yuricdm.com
http://yuricdm.com/2008/03/19/futuristic-music-design-challenge/
http://yurisnightbayarea.net/
About Yuri's Night
Yuri’s Night is a celebration of space exploration—and mankind’s curiosity, scientific ingenuity, technical achievements, and spirit of collaboration that have made it all possible. This year, NASA’s 50th anniversary, the Bay Area will be home to the largest Yuri’s Night celebration ever, with 8,000 people joining astronauts, artists, scientists, engineers, and musicians to pay tribute to our global space heritage and to celebrate how much more is out there to be discovered!
Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2008 will feature talks by Will Wright and Stewart Brand; art and sculpture by The Flaming Lotus Girls and Michael Christian; live acrobatic and modern dance performances by Capacitor; musical performance by Amon Tobin and the special debut of the new band Telstar, featuring Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead; and much, much more!
