one-week creation residency 8-15 August 2016 Halifax
Secret Theatre will commission up to 5 Nova scotia-based artists to create audio self-portraits using handheld recorders. Our purpose is to provide support for experimentation and exploration in our community. In the residency, you will work both independently and simultaneously within the group over seven days. We foster artistic growth through 1-2-1 mentorship and professional skill development workshops. We also provide access to space and equipment. You create a 5-minute audio selfie you deliver at the end of the week. We will pay you an artist fee and expose you to a national audience!
Why Selfie?
The appeal of selfies comes from their association with social networking, and how we mark particular moments or events in our lives by taking pictures of ourselves and posting them publicly online. Selfies afford us a unique opportunity to freely express and represent ourselves. They have become such a prominent part of our daily lives that the word itself has now been added to the Oxford Dictionary. However, selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or attention-seeking social dependence. By asking what such self representation and exchange means in a shared immersive audio environment, we intend to entice strangers deeper into the world of an other, helping us find ways to forge kinder and gentler ways of inhabiting social space.
How does it work?
Secret Selfie immerses audiences in rich sound-collages, whispered stories, instruction-based encounters and more. Artists from any and all disciplines keen to explore audio theatre are encouraged to apply. First, we will put out this call for submissions. Next, Up to 5 artists will be selected by project curators Sarah Moore and Dustin harvey. Past participants include dancer Susanne Chui (Mocean Dance), theatre artist Sue Leblanc (Zuppa Theatre Co.), performance artist Lisa Lipton, visual artist Stephanie Yee, theatre director Patrick Blenkharn, media artist Lindsay Dobbin, sound artist Veronica Simmonds, poet Andrew Patterson, choreographer Jacinte Armstrong (Kinetic Studio), and actor/academic Thea Fitz-James. You can hear samples of their selfies here: http://spiderwebshow.ca/sounds/secret-selfies. Selected artists will meet for a one-week residency August 8-15, 2016 to devise and create their audio selfies.
We will disseminate the work two ways: We will present the selfies at SpiderWebShow.ca a Canadian theatre platform produced by Neworld Theatre in collaboration with Praxis Theatre, The National Arts Centre, and Alberta Theatre Projects. The site has 3000+ views a month from a national and international audience. Next, we will host a public Listening Party. Audiences encounter the self-portraits on individual mp3 players in public locations like a record store, library, or coffee shops.
To Submit
- Email a selfie photograph incorporating whatever elements best tell us who you are. Photos should be unedited and in jpeg format.
- Please attach a CV, and a brief 100-word artist statement telling us what you are curious about exploring with this residency.
- DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: MAY 20th, midday
All applicants will be notified by Wednesday, June 1st
Send to: secret.residency@gmail.com