DIY Music Academy
Considering the level of technological expertise available in Toulouse, on one hand, considering issues linked to technological practices in contemporary creation, on the other, encouraging new collaboration between the technophile and artistic “communities” seems indeed important.
The DIY Music Academy programme was designed as a tool helping local artists (first of those the musicians) to comprehend tomorrow new technologies and develop new projects. Born from a mutual reflection between Toulouse numerical field actors (Hackerspace Tetalab, Fablab Artilect, L’Esplanade), this project is an occasion for technical skills of some and artistical ones of others to meet.
The issue of this programme is to find the good schedule , context and process for everyone to get to know each other (if it is already not the case), to find common desires and start dreaming about common projects, and this, without any obligation nor strain.
Yes, it is another project that tries to bring engineers and artists together like those we have been able to see in the last years. But here the difference is that it is not a call for projects nor an artistic residence, but the creation of a flexible and open setting that should encourage the exchange between men and women of good will wishing for sharing and learning.
Dear audience, there’s at a first glance nothing here for you (at least for now).
Artists searching for new tools to express their creativity, technophiles willing to offer some of their time, join us if you wish.
Schedule
From February until April 12th
Getting in touch, visit of the partner places, presentation of technical possibilities and know-hows, sharing of links and ideas, creation of a mailing-list…
April 13th – June 17th
Project stage : work groups are created and regular workshops are organised
June 18th and 19th
Final barcamp at the Cultural Centre Bellegarde : 32 hours non stop of fiddling in order to try to make some of the ideas a reality.
Premises
Advent of “prosumer"
The audience no longer “consume” technologies, like cultural goods, as they did 20 years ago. They don’t use them anymore in the passive way, as they used to watch television, listen religiously to a disk or go on internet in 1995, but live with them, use them, transform them and adapt them to their needs. This is the advent of prosumer, a hybrid between consumer and producer, or an active consumer.
Advent of « pro-am »
For 10 years, pro-ams, persons practising an activity with a strong “professionalism” without making it a profession (in other words being paid for this activity) are a growing part of our society and economy, highly dynamic and vital.
Advent of « technologic arts »
The point here is not to do a presentation of history of art, but just to notice that since the 1990’s, the technologic developments in arts have been publicly and institutionally recognized. Music is evidently concerned and “technologic” practice in nowadays musical production is, if not generalised, significant.
Advent of the notion of « usage »
The technological tool never is an end in itself but a means. The usage is the only purpose one can understand. Speaking about usage and trying to work on this notion, as cultural actors, in other words trying as far as possible to help their evolution is certainly a lead of the creation of the most productive future values.
Context
The DIY Music Academy project is not strictly speaking part of the European programme developed by our ICAS network “Festival as Lab” but is freely inspired by it and is wishing to participate in the same dynamic. It shares in particular with this programme an experimental and open methodology resumed in the pratical guide below: