Call for Proposals: Low Tech Electronics Faire
The Digital Scholars Studio at the Charles Library and the Music Technology Department at the Boyer College of Music and Dance invites submissions for organizations to table, individual or group paper presentations, workshops, performances, and artworks for the Low Tech Electronics Faire.
This Year’s Theme, Low Tech
Low Tech follows the spirit of the low fidelity (lofi), low-tech, minimal computing, handmade, craft, and DIY movements and genres. Low Tech can be a bounded technical designation (adjacent to technical prefixes like smart or super), and/or an abstracted aesthetic practice. Low Tech is not synonymous with analog: there are myriad examples of digital, low-tech networks, protocols, and objects. The prefix “low” can be applied to other technical designations including but not limited to things like low-power electronics and electronics that make use of low-level programming languages. Low Tech might be a process of looking through the history of technology to find something new in that which is old. As a methodology, a low tech essay could examine fundamental logics of circuit design and prototyping, electronic component manufacturing (from the handmade to the industrial), and counting and computation. As a practice, Low Tech could be something like weaving or drawing to explain a low-level programming concept, taking electronics apart, growing crystals at home, making ascii art, circuit bending to make music, breaking electronic parts (on purpose or on accident), salvaging electronic parts, making art with simple machines, powering electronics through something like the sun, winding a lever, or riding a bike. We welcome myriad interpretations and meditations on this theme.
Event Information:
This is a fully in-person event taking place on March 13th and 14th at Temple University’s Charles Library in Philadelphia, PA. Paper presentations will be recorded for online viewing after the event.
Workshops
Workshop Instructors will be compensated a $350 honorarium per workshop. Each workshop will be granted a budget of up to $150 for materials. Workshop sessions must be at least an hour and a half long and can be a maximum of four hours long. To preserve the intimacy and spirit of the event, workshops will be capped at 15 participants each. If your workshop requires a larger group, please indicate that on your application while keeping in mind that a larger group will result in the same $150 materials budget.
Lo-dB Performances (curated by Sandra James and Michelle Temple)
Do you make hand-made electronic instruments? Looking for a performance venue? Open call for performers and low-tech instrument makers to play in our Low Decibel ensemble to showcase instruments that have been made with low-tech. For example, instruments that are made using discrete electronic components such as capacitors, resistors, inductors, transistors, and non-intelligent integrated circuits. Please see the inspiration links below! Open to groups or solo artists, half an hour sets! Performances will close out the Electronics Faire on Friday March 14th in the afternoon through the early evening on the library’s roof terrace.
Art Exhibition (curated by Ollie Goss and Hannah Tardie):
The Electronics Faire affiliated exhibition will be shown at the Tyler School of Art and is open to artists, crafts people, and practitioners working in a variety of mediums that specifically engage with this year’s theme, Low Tech. Low tech asks us to look at what we already have in the room and if from that we can discover something new. We are interested in lofi, do-it-yourself, and handmade approaches: images created by pinhole cameras, hand painted film, flip books, net art running on an obsolete browser, solar-powered radios, mail art, analog video, hand-cranked kinetic sculpture, glitch art, and scanner art, to name a few. We seek work that asks us to move slowly and we seek work that surprises us.
Submission Information:
Presentation Submission: Abstract of 400-800 words. Paper Presentations should be 15 minutes in length. Slides and other props or aids are optional but recommended. Speakers should present a paper, artwork, performance, community, practice, or methodology related to this year’s theme.
Workshop Submission: Workshop Description of 200-400 words + accompanying media (photo, video, audio) demonstrating what will be done in the workshop or past iterations of the workshop, technical requirements (outlet access and equipment needs) and a Bill of Materials draft.
Organization Tabling Submission: Website, Mission Statement, Table Needs (size, outlet access, and any other requirements)
Art Submission: Title, Medium, Size, and Date of work. Installation requirements. Up to 300-word Artist Statement and up to a 150-word statement about the work. The exhibition is able to show work via pedestals, wall space, and monitors. If your work has specific technical requirements please reach out to hannah.tardie@temple.edu to see if we can accommodate your piece. All works must be shipped to Philadelphia, PA by February 24th, 2024. Exhibition details will be provided upon acceptance.
Performance Submission: Low tech/Lo-dB asks for submissions for live performance, audio, or multimedia. Fixed media will be looped on large monitors and a small sound system. Live performances will be held outdoors on the terrace, weather permitting. Lo-dB, for this call, means keeping performances subtle and quiet as a compliment to the library environment and the nature of the Low tech Electronics Faire theme.
Please submit a 300 word Artist Statement and up to 150-word statement about the work. Additionally, include any tech needs, supplemental links to current work, or a clip of the piece you wish to submit. Group submissions are permitted. Performance durations should not exceed 20 minutes, multimedia pieces should be under 7 minutes. Artists may submit one piece.
Proposals should be submitted online via form. Submissions are due by January 26th, 2025 at 11:59 PM. Please read about this year’s theme before completing your submission.