Queensland Music Festival and Brisbane City Council in Association with
::Room 40:: present
INCIDENTAL AMPLIFICATIONS: Curated By Lloyd Barrett // Lawrence English
For most of us, our every waking moment (and even those where we are unconscious) is surrounded by sound. From the obnoxiously pitched alarm tone that raises us from slumber to the muted sounds of night-time traffic that merge with natural nocturnal transmissions; there is always sound.
As a society we have increasingly sought to augment and indeed control the environments around us. All manner of tools have been utilised in this ongoing war against the unfamiliar, the unexpected and the Oundesirable¹. As well as a variety of visuals cues, sound is progressively used to colour our surroundings with a variety of aural hues.
The Twentieth Century brought with it an unparalleled use of artificial sound in the form of George Squier¹s Muzak a creation designed to enhance (and perhaps determine) amongst other things our Oshopping¹ experience. For decades, no mall or place of substantial commerce was complete without the dulcet tones of Muzak. To many it would seem that there is a world of difference between the bleating high frequency sounds of an Indian marketplace and multiple channels of mid-tempo instrumental music filling
our shopping malls; however the ability for sound to draw and focus our attention is universal and well documented.
But what of the remaining sounds? The incidental sounds that Muzak tries (and often fails) to mask: a dropped plate in the kitchen; a leaky tap; the creaking sounds of heated aluminium roofing and the ever-present air conditioner.
Incidental Amplifications reclaims the consumer soundscape by dispersing pieces made from incidental sounds into a variety of public spaces including the Fortitude Valley and Chinatown mall multi-speaker sound-systems in Brisbane, Australia.
Selected submissions will be sequenced and dispersed from 6pm to 6am every day by Queensland Music Festival and Brisbane City Council in Association with ::Room 40::.
Artists from Queensland, Australia and the rest of the world are invited to contribute a audio work that addresses the ideas of reclaiming and utilising these subsidiary soundtracks to our everyday shopping/urban experiences.
The pieces selected for the exhibition can be of variable length. Guidelines for submission are as follows:
1) Submitted pieces must address incidental sounds either directly (field recordings etc) or indirectly (reconfigured sound or synthesised incidentals)
2) All pieces must be suitable for use in a public space with a general audience
3) All submission should be sent as a data and audio CD
4) Submissions are due by 25th June 2005.
Please send all submissions to ROOM40 C/O:
LAWRENCE ENGLISH, PO BOX 771 HAMILTON CENTRAL QLD AUSTRALIA 4007