Call for Proposals

Networked Collaborative Processes: the technological challenges and aesthetic considerations of remote network performance

The RMA Study Group Music and/as Process announce the CfP for their 2021 online event.

Since the initial lockdown in February/March 2020, there has been a growing appearance of online forms of music making as communal events for collective music making, or as an alternative to the live, public concert. Examples of such work includes: Free Range Orchestra, Montrose Composers Club, Bastard Assignments, Pan Y Rosas Discos, Jefferson Park EXP, Peter Nagle’s digital drone orchestra using highfidelity.com and the Free Range Concert Series.

Due to the lack of live music making, both in concert and privately, we consider this to be a burgeoning and emergent form of music making, that has had to develop in a short space of time to identify and therefore adapt to the many technical challenges.

This emergent form of experimental music making comprises: 
- The consideration of practicalities under lockdown circumstances.
- The influence these online technologies have on aesthetic considerations.
- The growth of online concerts.
- The engagement with a communal form of communication and interaction with software that is by its very nature prone to glitches and latency.
- The wider international potential of any online collaboration. 

Working within these parameters has contributed to defining an aesthetic environment that sets itself apart from the conventional live situation, from which potentially genuinely new musically creative work can appear.

In June 2021, Music and/as Process will be hosting an online event that focuses on new work that has been specifically composed for remote/collective forms. Alongside performances, the event will feature discussions focusing on the process(es) and experiences of realising such works.

You are invited to submit sketches / pieces / papers that address and explore the technological challenges and aesthetic considerations of remote network performance.

These may include, but are not limited to:
- Critical aesthetics from within the medium itself.
- Creative work which addresses latency, glitches, synchronisation of multiple audio streams, software and hardware issues. 
- Collaborative creative practices, in which, for example, projects have developed over time amongst teams of performers/composers/improvisers.
- Issues regarding the quality of participation, and their possible solutions. 
- Networked music performance practises including the functionalities of individual platforms.

We are looking to present music which is created bespoke for the remote networking medium, rather than arranging pre-existing music for this format.

Proposals should include, as appropriate:
- A copy of the score / sketches, as a PDF.
- A short description (250 words) of the way/s in which the practice explores online performance and remote communication.
- A 250 word abstract if delivering a paper.
- Links to documentation (video or audio) of previous performances.

For proposals featuring live performance, the piece can involve between 2 to 10 people - including yourself. Pre-recorded performances can involve as many people as you wish.

There will be approximately 30 minutes for each presentation, which can be used as desired.

Please send your submissions to [log in to unmask]

Deadline for submissions: 23:59 (GMT) on 26th of March, 2021.

Decisions will be communicated mid April.

The RMA Music and/as Process Committee:
- Dr Steve Gisby (Independent researcher)
- Dr Richard Glover (Reader in Music at the University of Wolverhampton)
- Dr John Hails (Senior Lecturer and Reader in Music at Edinburgh Napier University)
- Sophie Stone (PhD candidate at Canterbury Christ Church University)
- Dr Alistair Zaldua (Independent researcher)

https://musicandasprocess.org/

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