Ambisonics summer school

SUM UP

We are the phonon~ crew, based and operating in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, since 2017. Our main focus is fringe electronic music, sound art and live spatial audio. With this opencall we are happy to invite artists, sound designers, performers and researchers, working within the field of immersive audio, to join us for a 2‑week long creative sound residency & symposium in Northern Bohemia with a public presentation in Ústí nad Labem.

FOCUS

The focus of the Ambisonics summer school is set on various aspects of live spatial audio, such as soft‑ & hardware pitfalls of multichannel sound system maintenance, ambisonic recording, spatial soundscapes transfer, potential and available interfaces for live interaction with multichannel sound systems.

Residency participants are invited to explore performative potentialities of spatial audio on a 24‑channel ambisonic soundsystem, designed, produced and provided by OTTOsonics, an Austrian collective of sound artists, developers, and sound engineers and also the general residency partner.

SUMMER SCHOOL

For the educational part of the symposium we’ve invited artists, researchers & musicians with technological, creative and philosophical backgrounds, active in the field of spatial audio, audioperformance and composition. There are workshops, presentations & talks being crafted for you by:

  • Jan Trojan (HAMU).

During the whole residency period there will be artistic care provided by Jan Burian.

Main communication language is English.

Working with the OTTOsonics system requires a laptop. Each participant will be provided by a Reaper preset & IEM decoder. There is also a possibility to work within SPAT Revolution software, decoder provided.

TIMEFRAME / LOCATION / ACCOMMODATION

The school starts on 16th of July and ends on 30th, with a public presentation on Saturday, 29th of July. Selecting, we will prefer the participants who are willing to attend the whole residency.

First week (16 – 23. 7.) of the residency will be located at Löblhof & Artgrund in Staňkovice, continuing in a former jazz & avantgarde music club Tukan in Ústí nad Labem, together with the public concert on SAT 29. 7.

Chosen participants will be provided with accommodation in private and shared rooms at Löblhof & Artgrund, an artist studio in the countryside of Central Bohemian Highlands. Löblhof is located 15 km from Ústí nad Labem and is approachable by bus, a car transfer will be organised for a pickup from the main station. Drinking water, bathrooms, kitchen etc are available on site. Nourishment will be managed by the crew.

FEE

Participation in the residency is free of charge. There will be a fee collected for the home‑cooked meals (up to 80 eur). Travel costs are to be covered from participant’s expenses. If needed, phonon~ association can provide a letter of acceptance to the summer school.

RESIDENCY OUTPUT

We aim to present the projects, created and developed by the participants during the residency, at a public concert in Ústí nad Labem on Saturday 29. 7. The concert will be powered by OTTOsonics 24‑channel system.

ARCHIVE

We would like to keep documentation of the projects created during the residency for archival purposes, meaning photo- and video materials, together with text and sound documentations of created pieces, for further potential presentation, in accordance with the author’s agreement.

HOW TO APPLY

For applying we would ask you to provide the following:

  • CV + short bio (PDF or a link to your website;
  • Portfolio (same as with CV);
  • Project proposal, preferably including a brief description of how you’d like to work with the ambisonics format.

Send the documents to phonon.crew@gmail.com with email subject “Ambisonics – summer school” applicant till 23:59 of 1st of May. Chosen participants will get confirmations till 7th of May.

Please, notice that we prefer to provide access to the system to the artists familiar with spatial audio and looking for opportunities to work within this field. Although besides this we are keen on receiving applications from artists and composers without previous knowledge in this field but wishing to start gaining experience in it.

The project is financially supported by the Statutory City of Ústí nad Labem & Ministry of Culture Czech Republic