Sound and music networked practice is increasingly significant, the public is very interested in this type of emerging practice, and Apo33 continues to develop this unique festival in the world! There is no equivalent.
Audioblast is a festival from cutting edge using digital tools to cross the concert, performance and particular form of exposure where the public can sit, listen to concerts, roam and chat with the artists during their online “live” sets; with possibilities for live chats with the musicians. The public can both listen at the Plateforme Intermédia which also allows a wider public into this world.
Audioblast Festival is an annual edition in the program of the Association and will be presented as part of the cultural project for APO33 at La Fabrique.
neoscenes was invited to jump into the festival for a one-hour live improv stream between 1400-1500 (GMT+1) Sunday, 01 March in Nantes (6-7 AM Mountain Standard Time – Arizona / 8-9 AM Eastern Standard Time – NYC / (you can go to World Time Buddy to calculate other time zones).
I would quibble with the ‘cutting-edge’ designation — I’ve been involved in streaming sonic (and visual) performance for almost 20 years now. It’s more ‘fringe’ than cutting edge. And the is likely more an issue of a distinct lack of solid historical references for most artists who are now discovering these mediums of expression. Even when I’ve been teaching about such stuff, for example, at CU-Bolder in 2012-13, the students were repelled by the thought of approaching a cutting edge, they literally couldn’t handle it: too indeterminate. (every time I remember that teaching experience, I wince.)
For the last five years, sonic art has seen (heard) huge growth among young artists as the tools are ubiquitous and pocketable in the form of smart phones. I can now stream over wifi using my iPad. Of course, it was possible 10-15 years ago as well, but it was a lot more unstable and often complicated. Today, at AudioBlast there were no technical glitches during my set. Good!
Audio in the network: a digital sound festival using the network as a venue for diffusing experimental, drone, noise, field recordings, sound poetry, electronic, and contemporary music. The festival will be streamed live online (you’ll need VLC or another ogg player — iTunes doesn’t work for this, argh, they switched to (open source) ogg at the last moment) and in quadraphonic sound at the venue La PLATEFORME INTERMÉDIA – LA FABRIQUE (4, Boulevard Léon Bureau – 44000 Nantes – France).
The theme this year is “Sonic Frontiers” / “les frontières sonores” :: the full schedule and the list of artists and another place to listen from (https://apo33.org:8000/audioblast.ogg)
Audio has been instrumental in pioneering many digital and communications technologies and is a versatile and creative medium for gaining deeper understanding of digital coding languages both visual and text based. Sound can travel and encourage a more horizontal and collaborative society, which also has the potential to germinate innovative practices across mediums and genres. During 2015 through the framework of “Sonic Frontiers”, APO33 will question and debate the ideas around audio migration, how sounds travel, influence and structure cutting edge music practices and sonic arts.
[documentation of the performance]
