[NewMusic] NWEAMO Call for Works

[Matt Davignon]

The NWEAMO board is pleased to announce that we are accepting submissions
for our 2007 festival, with the theme:

Synesthesia: the Mixing of Senses

Submission Deadline: April 1, 2007

Festival Dates:

• San Diego, CA - Oct. 5 & 6, 2007

• Boulder, CO - Oct. 13, 2007

• Morelia, Mexico- Oct. 19, 2007

• New York, NY- Oct. 26 & 27, 2007

Please read the guidelines (below) before submitting your work using our
online submission form:

http://nweamo.org/Guidelines.html

Online Submission and venue/city information is on the new NWEAMO website:

http://nweamo.org/Home.html

Synesthesia has fascinated composers for hundreds of years. The brain's
ability and tendency to map one sense onto another and to cross connect
between them has likewise remained a subject of intense scientific inquiry.

What roles might synesthesia play in pattern recognition, memory,
association and other mechanisms of cognition?

What possibilities does this suggest for artistic exploration?

Do works of music teach, train or condition us to smell colors, hear smells,
touch sounds, taste timbres, see rhythms?

And what about works that map higher order concious funcions, such as
language, onto non-liguistic sensory input?

We know that brooks can babble. Colors can shout. Can a smell yell? — or
whisper?

Do you have a work that causes people to hear imaginary voices, or speak in
tongues?

For the 2007 festival we are hoping to feature works that in the broadest
sense explore the potential for these connections.

Many, maybe most existing works do this metaphorically by relating a title
(for example with visual imagery) to musical content.

Hence, we think that nearly every electro-acoustic work is relevant to our
theme, and hope to hear from all of you!

Please submit your work using our online submission form.

This year's fall festival will be held in four fascinating North American
cities: Morelia (Mexico), San Diego CA, Boulder CO and New York City.

The Mission of NWEAMO: To forge connections between the composers,
performers and lovers of avant garde classical music and the DJs, MCs,
guitar-gods, troubadours and gourmets of experimental popular music.

When there is no connection, both suffer: When classical music does not
connect with popular culture, it becomes a music of experts, unable to
reflect and contribute meaningfully in the broad marketplace of developing
ideas and cultural experimentation. When popular music has no connection and
communication with the classical it becomes naive and superficial,
untethered to its historical roots and broad cultural underpinnings. A
healthy cultural milieu celebrates both.

BASIC GUIDELINES: (PLEASE READ!)

• We invite you to participate in our annual celebration of creativity.

Please regard this as an opportunity to meet with fellow composers and
performers who are dedicated to exploring the edges of aesthetics, cognition
and international culture through electro-acoustic music.

• Submission fee: There is a $15 upfront submission fee per work. This goes
to support the festival in general. There are no other fees.

• Conference Fee: There is no conference fee. NWEAMO is a grassroots affair.
In lieu of a conference fee we hope that selected composers and performers
will get involved in some way with the presentation of their work and
contribute their energy, enthusiasm and talents.

• Attendance 1: Selected composers must attend the cities in which their
work is performed. (except Jukebox selections—see below)

• Attendance 2: Jukebox selections — Composers of selected 2 channel
tape-only works, with no performance element, are not required to attend.

• Attendance 3: How Many Cities Must I Attend? (please see above) We want
you to help out with the presentation of your music in each city where your
music is on the program. This will vary from 1 city to 4 cities, depending
on scheduling limitations of invitees and programming needs of the festival.
We will work it out with you.

• Performers: Performers must be provided by applicant.

• Visual Element: Works with a visual element (live
musicians/video/installations/dance/unusual lighting etc.) will be favored.

• 2 channel tape works: We welcome 2 channel tape works, and generally will
present these in an ancillary Listening Booth, aka Jukebox — see above.

• Duration: In order to present 6-7 works per concert we are looking for
works of approximately 10 minutes duration. This is not a firm restriction,
but generally works at or under 10 minutes will be favored.

• File Type: All common compressed formats (audio and video) are acceptable.
Please do not submit full-bandwidth pieces.

• Multi-channel Surround Formats: Please submit a 2 channel version for
adjudication. NWEAMO will support 5.1 and 4 channel works.

• File Size: 20 MB maximum

• Travel Funds: Generally NWEAMO cannot provide funds for travel,
accommodation, performance fees etc. Small honorariums may be available,
depending on the overall costs of the festival, but these will not come
close to covering the costs of attending.

• Submission fee: There is a $15 upfront submission fee per work. This goes
to support the festival in general. There are no other fees.

• Apologies: Works cannot be considered until submission fee is paid. This
helps to fund the festival and to prevent frivolous submissions. The online
process makes it very easy to submit works, and consideration of your work
sets into motion a multi-layered process that takes months. In past years
the board has wasted many hours
considering the works of composers who had no serious intention of
attending. The submission fee helps to assure serious submissions. Since we
are all volunteers, and since our time, like yours, is valuable, we need
protect ourselves as much as possible. We want to focus our attention on the
works of those who are serious about joining our celebration.

Every year we get a few complaints about the submission fee. If you have
never mounted a festival dedicated to supporting the work of the community
of composers, I suggest you try it! Funding for these events is hard to come
by. We raise as much money as we can, but we are all working artists, like
you, and must divide our time between running a festival and pursuing our
own careers. This means that our time for writing grants is limited. In
truth we will help you as much as we can, with a bit of money if we have it,
as well as a place to stay with NWEAMO volunteers when available. The great
thing about running a festival like this is that if the funding dries up we
can run it on good will and vapors. Truly a festival for our times!

Please submit your work using our online submission form.

NWEAMO is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit, 501(c)3 corporation