[PMF~ 2024] Call for Works

Now in its 8th year, the Performing Media Festival [PMF~ 2024] will feature multiple events in South Bend, Indiana, with various opportunities to showcase your audio-visual work. https://www.performingmediafestival.com/

This year’s special guest artist will be Myriam Boucher, and in keeping with tradition, IU South Bend’s student electronic music ensemble, the Audio Visual Collective will perform selected ensemble works. The festival will take place at the South Bend Museum of Art (Jan 20th – Mar 24th) and on the campus of Indiana University South Bend (Mar 7th & 8th).

To round out our programming, we are seeking performative audio-visual works to present at this year’s festival. For a description of how we have come to define “performative audio-visual works,” please see the criteria for selection section below.

Fill out this form to submit a work for consideration.
Questions can be sent to [email protected].

Deadline for submission is December 15th, 2023 (11:59 PM EST).
Acceptances will be sent via email by January 7th, 2024 (11:59 PM EST).
Performance Media (if applicable) due by January 15th (11:59 PM EST).

Applicants may be of any age or nationality.

There are six categories:

1) Inclusion on single-channel video reels (1080p-4K, stereo audio) installed in the South Bend Museum of Art (SBMA) (installation runs Jan 20th – Mar 24th)

2) Screenings of Generative or Fixed-Media Audio-Visual Works (1080p video) in the Joshi Performance Hall (2-8 channels, Mar 7th) or at our off-campus site (stereo-only, Mar 8th).

3) Live Audio-Visual Performances by Artist-Provided Performer/s (1080p video) in the Joshi Performance Hall (2-8 channels, Mar 7th) or at our off-campus site (stereo-only, Mar 8th).

4) Live Audio-Visual Performance Works with Solo Instrument [violin, cello, or piano] (1080p video) in the Joshi Performance Hall (2-8 channels, Mar 7th). Submissions for this category should include a score for potential performers from the Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend to review.

5) Live Multimedia Ensemble Works for performance by the Audio Visual Collective (1080p video) in the Joshi Performance Hall (2-8 channels, Mar 7th) or at our off-campus site (stereo-only, Mar 8th). Submissions for this category should include a score/set of instructions for the Audio Visual Collective (AVC) to review. Additionally, the work should meet the following requirements:

  • Performative (Live) audio-visual media (Multimedia) involving at least two performers (Ensemble)
  • Written for electronic instruments and/or computers.
  • Note: Ensemble members have experience working with Max, SuperCollider, Processing, and other performing media applications; have access to common controllers (sliders, knobs, pads, tablets, etc..); and can read from score.

6) Screenings of Generative or Fixed-Media Audio-Visual Works (8k or 4kx4-channel video, monophonic audio) on IU South Bend’s IQ Video Wall (Mar 7). For this special screening category works should meet one of the following requirements:
Single channel video (8k) across a 4×2 grid of 16:9 screens
4 channel video (4×4) displayed in 4 quadrants across 16 total screens (16:9) grouped in 4s.

Note:

Works can be considered for more than one category, but please note the expectations for providing media, scores, and/or performers implied by each category.
For concert hall programming, preference is given to works 10 minutes or less, but longer works are welcomed in the screening category.

  • Artists are allowed to make more than one submission.
  • There is no application fee or registration fee for the festival.
  • We strongly encourage submissions from traditionally underrepresented artists.

Because the festival cannot provide compensation or accommodation, selected artists are not required to attend unless they are performing the work. All selected artists will be provided a copy of the program from the festival. We will also be able to provide artists who travel to perform their work with documentation of their performance. Recommendations for travel and lodging will be available on www.performingmediafestival.com.

Criteria for Selection: Audio-Visual Works will be evaluated based on (1) their artistic merit and (2) how well they meet the criteria of “performing media,” and (3) the presenter’s ability to faithfully reproduce the work at the festival.

  • In 2014 Debora Bernagozzi curated a show entitled Performing Media: Works by Signal Culture Artists in Residence at the Everson Museum. “Performing media”, as Debora called it, eloquently encapsulated the performance of multimedia works that underpins all the events of the current festival, named after that exhibition. Over the years, co-founders Ryan Olivier and Eric Souther came to define performing media as a genre that uses multimedia elements in a performative manner which so far has come to include live audio-visual performances, generative media processes, and edits/recordings of real-time captures. This evolving definition of performing media is re-evaluated each year along with the developing medium.
  • For simplicity’s sake: if one or more performer is actively engaging with some element of the audio-visual media (performing with, or alongside the audio, visuals, or other technological medium) OR the media itself is performative (e.g. generative) then the work likely fits within the conventions of the festival. Remember, edits/recordings of real-time captures are welcomed in the screening categories.
  • While many works in the past have included music and video, the festival has also included works with dance, DIY electronics/lighting, and poetry. We look forward to seeing how the expanding definition of performing media grows with this year’s festival.

-Ryan Olivier (Host)