Sound Campus

Examining the state of electronic music and sound practice at academic institutions

Sound Campus is a new program especially oriented towards examining the state of experimental sound practices at universities and research centers. It opens a possibility for students and researchers to present new forms of understanding sonic art to the big audience of Ars Electronica Festival. This year’s program, curated by Enrique Tomás, presents uneasy sound performances resonating in the face of a critical present. Intrusive music touching us despite lockdowns.

Sound Campus has firmly decided to connect with distant audiences by extending its resonant program towards the Internet. This pandemic period has clearly hit us prior to inventing adequate platforms for hosting online music festivals. Instagram music concerts were confined by the lockdown of laptop monitors and small living room speakers. Indeed, a certain “uberization” of online artworks could be observed: a “home delivery” of tele-networked and precooked artistic products. 

Towards experimenting artistically with the Internet as a medium for hosting music festivals, Sound Campus invited the sound artist Daniel Romero (aka “.tape.”) to create a social and public virtual environment for sound art exhibition -the metaverse-. This virtual exhibition space, modelled as a real-scale Titanic struck by a Chopi village of Mozambique, symbolizes the reality shock of our uncertain times. The metaverse includes artworks by more than fifty artists and musicians affiliated to academic institutions of all continents. Distant audiences can visit it through the metaverse application. Once a person is connected, it is possible to walk the Sound Campus exhibition along the many cabins of our Titanic model or listen to all live concerts happening in Linz. All this, with the social companion of other visitors. 

For the selection of projects, Sound Campus published an open call for projects. More than 120 artists from all continents submitted live performances, musical works or interactive sound installations. More than forty artworks were selected and curated for this festival.