SOUND CHECK

OPEN CALL NOW LIVE
CLOSES 20TH FEBRUARY 2017 AT 5PM (GMT)
 

What do amps and alloys, 3D printers and piccolos have in common? How does your favourite tune sound when it’s played on a physically impossible instrument? How will blurring boundaries between sound, science, fabrication and performance lead to new sonic discoveries? What’s the difference between noise and music anyway?

Banish the bland with one-of-a-kind instruments that make sounds like no other. Join musicians, makers, computer engineers, and artisans to explore the technologies changing how we hear, experience, and make music.

Get hands-on with experimental materials, virtualisation, and DIY technologies. Whether you’re imagining a twenty-metre trumpet, a synth for six players, or a drum kit for slime mould, everyone can test a real or a simulated version of their wildest sonic ideas in our SOUND CHECK LAB. Join a workshop on instrument building, or take a masterclass in digital improvisation, and collaborate with other visitors to explore the outer edge of tomorrow’s sound.

SOUND CHECK is that moment between practice and performance, designs and reality, where new musical tools make us hear our world differently.

THEMES

For our open call we’re especially interested in projects that explore themes and topics such as:
• Open-source kits and plans for building instruments
• Work that pushes the possibility of sound through physics, biology or chemistry
• Projects that feature fab-lab equipment to make instruments or music (3D printer, laser cutter, etc.)
• Musical interfaces that are designed for maximum accessibility or ultimate self-expression
• Instruments or installations which encourage collaboration across generations, skill-levels and genres
• Custom, handmade or original instruments
• DIWO (Do It With Others) workshops, installations or sonic labs
• Community-oriented practices which engage underserved communities through music
• Projects that repurpose or upcycle e-waste, trash or underused materials (i.e. circuit bending, e-waste synthesisers, cigar box guitars)
• Instruments that can be played in collaboration with humans and non-humans (plants, slime molds, artificial intelligence)
• Community oriented maker projects (i.e. a modular synth that gets added to weekly by different groups or schools)
The Science Gallery open call model means that anyone with a good idea can submit a proposal but the panel will be particularly looking for proposals that include creative collaborations between science and art.

BUDGET

Science Gallery Dublin are looking for up to 25 works for the SOUND CHECK exhibition. SOUND CHECK proposals will be funded up to a maximum budget of €2,400, which should include all artist fees, materials, equipment, shipping, travel etc. Two outstanding original works may be commissioned with a higher budget of up to €6,000. Please note that these are maximum amounts, not targets. Science Gallery Dublin are happy to write letters of support for applicants seeking funding from elsewhere.

Deadline for submissions: 20th February 2017. Find out more about the SOUND CHECK open call here>>>>.

SOUND CHECK will run June – October 2017.