The Electronic Arts Experimentation and Research Centre (CEIArtE) of the National University of Tres de Febrero in Argentina and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, with support of the Balance-Unbalance international project and collaboration from the Hexagram-Concordia Centre for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies of Concordia University in Canada, calls for participation in the international competition 
for the creation of miniatures of sound art related to the climate change effects and the global environmental crisis.
For this contest, we understand by sound art miniatures, creations of sound art/music involving the use of new technologies, whose products can fit into what is known as soundscapes, electroacoustic /acousmatic music sonorizations and sonifications.
OBJECTIVES:
The Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre aims to help to reduce, through diverse humanitarian actions, the consequences of climate change and extreme weather events.
This contest has two principal objectives:
1. To participate in the activities that the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre realize for different regions of all the world.
How? In this case through the sound art miniatures.
It is very important for the Climate Centre to have art material that can support their actions (such as participative workshops, educational videos and collaborative learning games developed to improve the understanding and prevention of disasters). It’s a way to stop being spectators and help thinking in what each one can contribute.
2. To improve knowledge about the environmental crisis and to promote awareness about the effects of climate change.
Therefore we request, to those who wish participate in this call, to read the document Climate Guide:http://www.climatecentre.org/downloads/File/reports/RC_climateguide_ES_web.pdf We also suggest to check out regularly this website where new reference materials about this topic will be added. http://www.ceiarteuntref.edu.ar.
THEMES:
The proposals should be focused on any of the following themes:
| CATEGORY A: OPEN THEME | CATEGORY B: MOSQUITOES |
| As possible themes of sound art miniatures, this category includes anything related to climate change and extreme weather events.
Therefore, it is important to understand better the complex web of elements related to the accelerated climate-related processes that we live. We need to act effectively and efficiently to the challenges of the environmental crisis we face, developing strategies and performing actions that can have a positive effect either local, regional or global. The Climate Centre is responsible to train and strength capacities for better climate risk management, as well as facilitate the successful integration of preventive plans into NGO programs, learning centres and governments, and it also helps spreading and exchanging experiences and documentation. The sound art miniatures can include any type of sounds: sounds of nature, sounds of acoustic and/or electronic musical instruments, sounds produced by common or unusual objects and sounds produced or transformed by digital devices. Voices can be also included producing either onomatopoeias or phonemes, or as single words or whole sentences. In the last case, the accepted languages are: English, French and Spanish. Just as an example, the sound art miniatures could take into consideration: general increase of temperature, heat waves, increment in risk of heavy precipitation, drought, intensity of tropical cyclones, sea level rise, salinization of groundwater, change in patterns of pests and insects, higher risk of forest fires, soil erosion, worsening of air quality in cities, potential relocation of people and infrastructure, migration and loss of property, higher risks of shortages of food and water, health problems associated with migration, withdrawal of private insurers in vulnerable areas, and post-traumatic stress disorders. |
This category is related to the problems caused by mosquito-borne diseases, and the relationship of these with climate change processes. Dengue transmission is accruing precisely because such changes.
More than 2,500 million people are at risk of dengue in the world. A variety of potentially fatal dengue fever is severe dengue or hemorrhagic dengue. It is estimated that each year there are between 50 and 100 million cases of dengue, and between 250,000 and 500,000 cases of hemorrhagic dengue. This disease appears in more than 100 countries, usually in urban and suburban areas with tropical and subtropical climates. Dengue fever is an acute viral disease caused by the dengue virus and transmitted by the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito that breeds in standing water in containers and unused objects. This disease is more frequent in children, adolescents and young adults. It is characterized by a sudden onset fever lasting 3 to 7 days accompanied by headache and pain in the joints and muscles. There is no vaccine, cure or specific treatment for dengue fever. Therefore, prevention is the only effective strategy. Fluctuations of climate change, such as rain, warmer weather and water scarcity will increase the transmission of this disease. The Red Cross and Red Crescent are some of humanitarian agencies that are actively responding to the health impacts of climate change, through education and organization of cleanup campaigns focused to reduce the spread of dengue. As part of the awareness campaigns about this issue, the Climate Centre uses a game called “Humans vs. Mosquitoes. In the fall of 2011 a team of students and professors of the Yale University and Parsons, The New School for Design, developed this game for the Red Cross/Red Crescent to teach, initially to children, about diseases transmitted by vectors and the effects of climate change. The game features innovative and pedagogic tools that allows both children and adults (including players such as politicians and government executive members) understand and incorporate with a emotional level, complex and abstract concepts about the climate change and its consequences in relation with the transmission of diseases. “Humans vs. Mosquitoes” helps to understand the importance of prevention, especially what refers to cleaning those elements that are not in use and can be a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes. More information: http://humansvsmosquitoes.com/background/ The sound art miniatures can include any type of sounds: sounds of nature, sounds of acoustic and/or electronic musical instruments, sounds produced by common or unusual objects and sounds produced or transformed by digital devices. Voices can be also included producing either onomatopoeias or phonemes, or as single words or whole sentences. In the last case, the accepted languages are: English, French and Spanish. |
SELECTED WORKS:
1. All the works that the jury understands that fit the needs of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, as they are outlined in the previous section, will have in the official website of the Centre: http://www.climatecentre.org/ a link available to listen to and download the pieces.
2. A subgroup of the sound art miniatures selected for the website will be also used by the Climate Center at least in three workshops to be held in Africa, the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Europe.
It should be understood that there is no predetermined limit to the number of miniatures selected, because the more they can fulfill the role of supporting or attach to the actions of the Climate Center, the more materials may be selected to be used in their activities.
3. Only for category B – “Mosquitoes”: The selected miniatures would be used as sound/musical atmospheres (background or playback) during the practices of the mentioned game: “Humans vs. Mosquitos”.
4. Finally, beyond the miniatures selected by the Climate Center to be used in their actions for humanitarian purposes, and put them available on its official website, they can be also linked to other participant projects websites related to this initiative, such as the international project Balance-Unbalance website, the Hexagram-Concordia Center of Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technology of Concordia University in Canada and the Electronic Arts Experimentation and Research Centre (CEIArtE) of the National University of Tres de Febrero of Argentina.
In all cases, the selected works need to have a Creative Commons license that allows these pieces to be freely distributed, identifying in each case their original creators.
POSSIBLE USES:
Below are mentioned some examples of uses for the miniatures:
a) Participative workshops, educational videos and collaborative learning games. These are part of the activities carried out by the Climate Centre which have proved to be effective in community workshops, also for delegates and representatives of the Climate Center in various countries, and executive government members, politicians and administrative employees of hierarchy. See examples with Kenyan farmers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8eRhS2XnCA&feature=youtu.be and at Oxford University: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA7goLzbU2U
b) At conferences, workshops and symposiums. The miniatures can fulfill multiple functions: support, reinforcement, and even serve as an introduction to certain events. In different circumstances a sound miniature can become the key and determining factor to capture the attention of the participants, especially in major events: as an example, we take the case of a meeting with a lot of speakers and a large audience, in which is required to be focus for several hours on each submission or action.
FORMATS:
In order to participate in this contest, everything stated in this call must be respected, including the following indications and limitations.
- All proposals must be related to the aforementioned themes.
- Do NOT send audio files to any email addresses listed in this call.
| CATEGORY A: OPEN THEME | CATEGORY B: MOSQUITOES |
| - Each participant may submit a maximum of three (3) sound art miniatures.
- The miniatures may have a duration of between ten (10) seconds and three (3) minutes. The reason of the difference between the minimum and maximum time accepted is to allow the Climate Centre team to have a variety of possible applications for the miniatures.
|
- Each participant may submit only one (1) sound art miniatures in this category.
- The miniatures may have a duration of between three (3) minutes and six (6) minutes.
|
- File formats accepted are: aif or wav (16 bit, 44.1KHz, stereo). Compressed formats such as mp3 or mp4 are discouraged but can be accepted in case of need.
- Collective creations are accepted.
SUBMITTING YOUR PROPOSAL:
Following this link you will access the submission form:
ONLINE REGISTRATION
You must complete one form for each miniature submited. The form shall include the link to the audio file for the jury to listen to each work. Each audio file must be uploaded to the soundcloud website (www.soundcloud.com). Aditionally each sound file must be available for immediate download.
In case of submitting more than one sound miniature, each piece must comply independently with the requirements described.
Each participant must indicate in the soundcloud website that his/her work can be publicly distributed under the Creative Commons license.
TERMS OF USE:
Using a Creative Commons license for each selected sound art miniature allows for publicly distributing and disseminating the works, having the author(s) of the miniature quoted accordingly while the use is not for commercial purpose. The license jurisdiction will be: international. The accepted license for this call is “Recognition – NoComercial – Equal/Share”. More details at: http://creativecommons.org
Each sound art miniature selected and available on the official Climate Centre website will appear with the corresponding credits as the artist indicated. Having made clear the noncommercial use of the work by any of the parts involved, any fees or payments of any kind are completely excluded. The use of the miniature will always be binded directly or indirectly with humanitarian principles.
The jury for the selection of the sound art miniatures will be composed by representatives of the organizing institutions: CEIArtE-UNTREF, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre, Hexagram-Concordia University. The jury´s decisions are final.
The sole participation in this competition implies full acceptance of all conditions.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Opening Call: October 24, 2012.
Deadline of miniature submission: March 10, 2013 (midnight, local Buenos Aires time).
Selection of miniatures announcement: the results will be made public during the Balance-Unbalance 2013 international conference that will take place at Queensland Central University in the Noosa biosphere, a UNESCO ecological designated reserve in the Sunshine Coast of Australia, from May 31 to June 2, 2013.
Miniatures online publication: July, 2013.
INFORMATION AND CONTACT:
This is the first stage of a larger project. In future calls, audiovisual works and multiple modalities of electronics art will be including too.
To contact the organizers write to ceiarte@untref.edu.ar, writing in the SUBJECT: art climate [Red Cross contest]
Related Links:
http://www.climatecentre.org
http://www.ceiarteuntref.edu.ar
http://www.balance-unbalance2013.org
http://www.noosabiosphere.org.au/
http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca
http://creativecommons.org
http://ceiarteuntref.edu.ar/art_climate
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