CALL FOR POSTERS
“UPHONIAS – Sounds and Future Environments”
Workshop / Colloquium, March 6 and 7, 2015
matralab, Concordia University Montréal
in collaboration with the festival “Montréal Nouvelles Musiques 2015”
matralab invites artists and theorists to imagine and describe a project of environmental sound art – an as-yet unrealized or even unrealizable project: their personal “uphonia”. We want to discuss utopian, unrealized (or unrealizable) dream-projects combining sound, technology and our surroundings and environments – projects where we allow ourselves to blithely ignore financial or logistical constraints. Have you ever dreamed about such an uphonian project ? We are interested in both long-cherished (even published) projects – and new ideas triggered by our call.
Please send us your uphonia text/image/sketch/manuscript/score, laid out the way you want it, formatted as a single page b/w poster (as high resolution pdf/scan – we will print them up as b/w 3’x4’ posters). All accepted posters will be displayed and discussed during the symposium – authors may, but are not required to attend.
These posters will form an exhibition in an art space, the visual and conceptual centrepiece of a one-day workshop / colloquium in which invited sound artists, curators, composers and academics will comment, extrapolate, compare, enthuse, and collectively build a discussion around your visions. The entire day will be live-streamed, and archived on the matralab vimeo account. A video documentation of the poster installation will be produced, and all accepted posters will be displayed in a virtual gallery on the matralab website.
Utopias always imply a critique of the way things are done here and now – and through presentations and responses, discussions and informal dialogue, the invited speakers and the audience are called upon to generate such a critical discourse on the possibilities and problematics of any artistic practice that inserts sound into an environmental context. Among others, we strongly encourage questions such as “What does sonic design mean in environmental contexts?”, “What is the relationship between sounds placed in the environment and sounds of the environment?”, “What does the term ‘soundscape’ mean in the context of the anthropocene?”, “How can a soundscape illuminate the problematic relationship between nature and humankind?”, “What is the sonic or soundscape equivalent of environmental land art?”.
Send your submission (and/or questions) to matralab.research@gmail.com.
Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2015.
Notification of acceptance by Feb 15, 2015.
Should your poster be accepted for display, a CDN $50 registration fee will be asked of those affiliated with a university, institution or company. Independent artists may ask for the fee to be waived.
More information about matralab at http://matralab.hexagram.ca
and about the festival Montréal Nouvelles Musiques at http://www.festivalmnm.ca/en/2015/