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MEGAPOLIS Audio Festival
Audience members interviewing and recording one another during a live event at the 2013 MEGAPOLIS Audio Festival
Group interviewing & recording exercise (outdoor event),
2013 MEGAPOLIS Audio Festival, NYC
StatusActive
GenreFestival
FrequencyEvery 1-3 years
Location(s)2009 Cambridge, MA
2010 Baltimore
2013 New York City
2015 Oakland
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated24 April 2009 (2009-04-24)[1]
Most recent5 June 2015 (2015-06-05)

The Megapolis Audio Festival (aka MEGAPOLIS) is a weekend-long event dedicated to the art of sound and to do-it-yourself (DIY) culture. The festival serves as a forum for artists, documentarians, musicians, and fans to come together to share secrets on producing and presenting challenging audio works online, on-air, and on the stage. Traveling to a new city each year to connect artists from around the world with local artists and arts organizations, MEGAPOLIS remains an affordable event where people of all ages can educate and inspire each other to hear the world differently.

MEGAPOLIS was founded in 2008 by Justin Grotelueschen (managing director) and Nick van der Kolk (of Love and Radio) and is administered by a new team of organizers each year.

The name Megapolis is a variation of megalopolis, referring originally to the Northeast megalopolis of the United States and to the cultural influence of an urban environment on the soundscape.

Past festivals

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2009

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The inaugural[2] MEGAPOLIS Audio Festival[3] kicked off in Cambridge, Massachusetts, starting on April 24, 2009, at the Massasoit Elks Lodge[4][5][6][7] and continuing April 25 and 26 at the Pierre Menard Gallery,[8][9] with some events in Boston. Featured events[10][11] included:

Over 40 artists from across North America and from countries beyond combined with local artists to perform, install works, and conduct workshops and tours under the general theme of the megapolis, including:

  • workshops for building your own instruments and contact microphones
  • an audio-making slumber party
  • a bicycle-powered 8-track player
  • a clandestine audio tour of an insane asylum
  • a presentation on the cross-pollination of poetry and sound

Co-sponsored Festival events included a media archaeology of Boston at the Carpenter Center at Harvard University, a live cello score of a museum construction at the Axiom Gallery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and a live performance of the WNYC science program Radio Lab at the Museum of Science in Boston.

2010

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The second[16] MEGAPOLIS[17][18][19] occurred in Baltimore, Maryland starting on May 14 at the Windup Space[20] and continued May 15 and 16 starting at the Hexagon Gallery. The 2010 event[21][22] featured several high-profile artists including:

Over 60 artists from around the world interpreted the festival theme of travel during:

  • audio scavenger hunts with iPhones and low-wattage transmitters
  • collaborative sound-making performances using contact mics attached to parachutes and knitting needles
  • 1-800-numbers that attendees could call that dealt out exercises and suggestions designed to elicit aural experiences
  • booths where participants could retell their nightmares and strain to hear to tiny sounds
  • existentialist theatrical tours led by gnomes who encounter deviant characters along a path to 'enlightenment'[23]
  • audio transmissions between live-mic'd venues using FM and shortwave radio

2013

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The third[24] MEGAPOLIS Audio Festival took place in New York City, from April 19–21, 2013, with most events[25][26] happening in and around the New School. More than 100 artists participated including:

Artists loosely interpreted the festival theme of tourism through more than 60 events such as:

  • “noise” karaoke, where participants sing hit songs as the DJ mangles their vocals through live processing
  • Foley effect workshop recording food items then sampled and mixed live in a dance music tent
  • helmet that used bone conduction to “hear” sounds
  • experimental one-man theatre backed by suffocating noise music and harrowing spoken word
  • global experiments in musical improvisation using telecommunications networks

2015

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The fourth[27] MEGAPOLIS [28][29][30] was the first held outside the Northeast megalopolis,[31] instead popping up within the Northern California megaregion. This event kicked off at The LAB in San Francisco CA on July 5, 2015, continuing the 6th at various venues in Oakland before landing at the Omni Commons on the 7th. Some of the artists[32] featured that weekend:

The theme of the 2015 MEGAPOLIS Festival was the frontier and featured 30 events[36] including:

  • an immersive installation of sound-emitting light bulbs that react to your presence
  • interactive presentations on scientific innovations in music and storytelling through conscious thought control as well as infrasound imperceptible to the human ear
  • an exercise in rapid prototyping using the basics of design thinking to introduce the idea of iterative problem solving for artists
  • hacking and soldering workshops to create Moldover's Light-Theremin CD cases,[37][38][39][40] low-wattage radio transmitters, homemade synthesizers, and manipulated game controllers
  • yoga together with drone music

References

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  1. ^ "Hear! Hear! The first annual Megapolis Festival sounds off". Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  2. ^ "MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 7 May 2009. Archived from the original on 7 May 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  3. ^ Parish, Matt (22 April 2009). "Hear! Hear! The first annual Megapolis Festival sounds off". Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009.
  4. ^ Hawkinson, John (20 March 2017). "Elks file suit to halt Mass+Main's high-rise, asking court to look at impact on neighbors". Cambridge Day. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  5. ^ Jimenez, Monica. "Council committee declines to act on Mass+Main challenge". Cambridge Chronicle & Tab. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Massasoit Elks Lodge, Cambridge, MA, USA". setlist.fm. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Massasoit Elks Lodge, Cambridge, MA". JamBase. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Pierre Menard Gallery - Harvard Square - Cambridge, MA". Art Gallery Finder. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  9. ^ "The Untimely Deaths of Lame Duck and Pierre Menard | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  10. ^ "BOSTON 2009 – MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 24 March 2013. Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  11. ^ "Cambridge + Boston 2009 | MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". 26 September 2015. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  12. ^ "The Lothars | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  13. ^ "The Lothars". Free Music Archive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  14. ^ Lithgow, Michael (22 April 2009). "Audio Ecstasy at MEGAPOLIS". ArtThreat.
  15. ^ Manning, James (27 April 2009). "BIG RED ON-THE-TOWN: MEGAPOLIS AUDIO FESTIVAL". Big Red and Shiny.
  16. ^ "MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 28 April 2010. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  17. ^ Hirsch, Arthur (16 May 2010). "Did You Hear That? Audio festival hits Baltimore with sounds all its own". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  18. ^ McCabe, Bret (12 May 2010). "Audiophiles: sound brings a wide array of artists and artisans together for the second annual Megapolis Festival". Baltimore City Paper. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012.
  19. ^ Klein, Andrew (14 May 2010). "The Air Around Us, Sampled: Baltimore is host to this year's second-annual Megapolis, a festival of all things audio". Splice Today. Archived from the original on 31 January 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  20. ^ "Megapolis and the Beautiful Noise of North Avenue". Maryland Morning. 10 May 2010. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  21. ^ "BALTIMORE 2010 | MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 26 September 2015. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  22. ^ "BALTIMORE 2010 – MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 24 March 2013. Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  23. ^ "GEODESIC GNOME AT MEGAPOLIS". What Weekly. 20 May 2010.
  24. ^ "NYC 2013 – MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". 8 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  25. ^ "New York 2013 | MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 17 August 2015. Archived from the original on 17 August 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  26. ^ "NYC 2013 – MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 8 May 2013. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  27. ^ "MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 16 June 2015. Archived from the original on 16 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  28. ^ Neumann, Erik (5 June 2015). "Megapolis Audio Festival Celebrates the Art of Sound – KQED News". Ww2.kqed.org. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  29. ^ Rose, Cara. "How to make a CD relevant, and other lessons from the Megapolis Audio Festival". Fusion.net. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  30. ^ Garrett Tiedemann (15 June 2015). "Megapolis Audio Festival 2015: Pushing the boundaries of composition". Yourclassical.org. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  31. ^ "Megapolis Audio Festival builds a sonic wonderland". 48 hills. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021. "We were really influenced by festivals being put on by public radio," Justin told me. "The Radio without Boundaries festival in Toronto was a big influence, as well as the Third Coast festival and the Conflux Psychogeography festival. There was this interest in sound engineering combined with musical performance that really inspired us to do this. "The reason we called it Megapolis was because we started out in Boston, and if you're an artist on the East Coast, you know that Boston, Baltimore, New York are all on the Eastern Corridor continuum, part of this huge metropolis — the Northeast Megalopolis — that you're probably constantly traveling up and down for performances and projects. We wanted to plot that geography in a sonic sense, making it one big corridor of ideas and exchange.
  32. ^ "Megapolis Audio Festival Archives". FringeArts. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  33. ^ "Megapolis Festival Celebrates the East Bay's Sonic Boom". East Bay Express. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  34. ^ "2015 Megapolis Audio Festival: Sound Art & Live Music | Opening Day". Funcheap. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021. 2015 free events include: June 6, 2015, 6 pm – Free Block Party with Fantastic Negrito (NPR's Tiny Desk Concert contest winner), the Kitchen Sisters, Glynn Washington, DJ Shruggs, KALW, KQED, and scores of producers from near and far. Foodie trucks Taqueria Sinaloa and Scotch Bonnet will be on hand to fatten you up. Location: Black Ball Universe (230 Madison St, Oakland)
  35. ^ Jiang, Joanna (11 June 2015). "Song Exploder hosts dynamic duo Matmos at Megapolis Audio 2015". B-Side. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  36. ^ "OAKLAND+SF 2015 | MEGAPOLIS!!! AUDIO ART!!! HURRAY!!!". Megapolis Festival. 31 August 2015. Archived from the original on 31 August 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  37. ^ Moldover. "Build your own Light-Theremin". Megapolis Festival. Archived from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  38. ^ Moldover. "Moldover's Light-Theremin CD (DIY Version)". Instructables. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  39. ^ "100 Break Beats Warped & Ready!". 26 December 2014.
  40. ^ "Moldover's Album - Circuit Board Instrument". Moldover. youtube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
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