01 Jun 2020

SARS-COV-2 decoded for art to stimulate science

We invite European artists to think about the current context and how it can be leveraged through creative processes (sound and music). It is intended to an understanding and reflection on sound in a more expansive field, between the social and the aesthetic, in the domain of a creation process shared between authors, institutions, historical conditions, and the European territory.

Open to artists living and working in the European territory. We value applicants from groups that face discrimination based on race, ethnicity, background (Cultural), people with disabilities or members of the LGBTQ + community.

Musical or sound areas admitted:
Abstract; Acousmatic; Art & Technology; Avant-garde; Classical; Electroacoustics; Experimental; Generative sound; Soundart; Sound design; New media; Noise; Visual music.

Artists must develop a sound or musical composition up to 2 minutes maximum using the MIDI files available here for download. Applicants must choose the material that best suits their ideas and deliver the sound file in WAV format hosted on an independent server (dropbox, Mega.NZ, Sync.com, Google Drive, upCloud, Tresorit, Box, OneDrive, Amazon Drive, SpiderOak, IDrive).

Accepted formats must follow the configuration presented:
WAVE HQ (24 bit / 96 kHz. 16 bit / 48 kHz. Sample rates from range: 48000Hz.

In addition to biography with 700 characters (spaces included), artists should send the artwork synopsis including a reflection on the processe, methodology and technique used, not exceeding 500 characters (spaces included).

The material received will then be transformed into a collective sound piece to present as an installation for multichannel, quadrophonic, with spatialized sound. The installation will be created by the intermedia and sound artist Hugo Paquete and the curator Jorge Reis.

The application will be evaluated by the organization members and invited experts. We will select up to 37 compositions or sounds.

The conversion of the files to MIDI was developed by Hugo Paquete. It was divided into three variations for each part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA: COVID-19. These divisions are translated into three MIDI files for each sequence corresponding to the DNA, proteins, and the junction of the two.

The selected works will also result in a digital and printed album.The proceeds from the sale of the album will be donated to institutions that are developing a drug or vaccine to combat this virus. To date, the programming partners are the Festival DME - Dias da Música Eletroacústica, Lisboa Incomum, Teatro Ibérico and i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto. The dissemination partners are Cultura na Rua - EGEAC, Fundação PLMJ, OVERTOON, Companhia João Garcia Miguel.

As the role of the partners is crucial in the dissemination and implementation of the project, the

organization invites other entities to join the project, by sending an e-mail to
sars-cov-2@emerge-ac.pt.

This is the first of several annual or biennial projects, of art and science, which will be carried out, for the sake of a common good.