Guest Blog: Soundcrawl co-founder Kyle Baker

I’m often asked, “what is Soundcrawl?”

“Soundcrawl is a pop-up multimedia gallery that’s hosting an electronic music festival”  When we first launched, Soundcrawl was mostly an “art project.” We’ve adapted every year to better serve our artists and the audience, and that’s led us to a five night festival, held mostly at Brick Factory in Cummins Station.  We’ve joined a local non-profit, Artists for Community Transformation, and we’ve continued our relationships with Internally Sound and Sennheiser, who continue to provide incredible levels of production support and equipment that makes this all possible. The events range from free to $20, and Festival passes begin at $40. Additionally, we’re working on streaming every event online in binaural stereo, to make these events available to artists and audiences overseas.

The 2012 festival is important to Nashville because it presents the full spectrum of new media composition in the world today.  Electroacoustic and fixed media works, acoustic work that uses technology, interactive installations, and interactive performances.

We’ll begin the 2012 festival by bringing a limited number of selections to the Arcade during the Art Crawl on October 6th.  A great addition to this year’s event is “The Essential Mortal Kombat” by Brian Patrick Franklin.  Brian is joining us from Illinois, where he’s developed a way to play old video games using… a piano. The piano takes the place of the controller, and the game itself becomes a type of loosely improvisational score! It’s a lot of fun; as you can see below:

After the Art Crawl, we’ll be hosting the AfterCrawl at Brick Factory… and Tracy Silverman, “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin” will headline the event in a rare solo set at 9:30! Tickets are $20.

Sunday morning, festival pass holders will be touring Blackbird Studios, where people like the Black Keys, Paul Simon, and Doctor John have recently recorded.

Our premier event, Art of the Future, takes place at Brick Factory, Sunday October 7^th, from 5-8pm.  This event features innovative live performances by artists from around the country: a work for violin and electronics that’s practically a duet with itself (from the notable Center for Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State in OH), an interactive piece from California that takes in the sound and environmental information of the audience, and processes it into audio in real time; a fantastic piece of dance that uses Microsoft Kinect to respond to the dancer’s movements (from the University of N. Texas), a work for guitar and electronics by Mark Zanter, (professor of composition at Marshall); and a work for affected percussion and electronics from Philadelphia. Tickets are $20, and a full lineup is available at soundcrawl.org.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, we’ll be hosting local artists in solo shows at Brick Factory.  Monday Night is a fantastic collaboration from Benton-C Bainbridge and Tony Youngblood. Benton-C will be “fast-mapping” (projection mapping in real time) while Tony accompanies musically. Guest are encouraged to bring an object for Benton to projection-map onto.

Tuesday night features the premiere of a new string quartet by Tim Hinck. Tim joins us from Chattanooga where he leads the New Dischord Festival.  Wednesday night is an evening with Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, who’s work often involves woodwind music that triggers electronic and video elements.

Closing out the festival is a half-day workshop on PureData software led by Greg Pond (who, besides showing work at Zeitgeist and Brick Factory, also teaches at Sewanee). The workshop takes place at Brick Factory from 1pm-5pm on Saturday, October 13^th.

The future of these modes of expression is full integration into the artworks themselves.  These tools and technologies will cease to be novelties and become normative. Processes will move into performances, while fixed works will develop into fully immersive installations. Future audiences will cease to see a distinction between “electronic music” and “music,” and Soundcrawl exists to bring this Art of the Future to light.

For additional information visit soundcrawl.org.