Expo Unconference :: Date: Friday 4th July, 10:30-16:30 :: University of Brighton :: Grand Parade Campus, Grand Parade, Brighton, BN2 0JY

Expo Unconfernce is about discussing ideas about and around sonic art. By ‘sonic art’ we mean anything that uses sound with artistic intent. It is part of Expo Brighton, the UK’s largest weekend of free sound art and experimental music.

At Unconference, everybody participates! That means the attendees are the presenters and the audience. If you aren’t going to present, you can organize a discussion or publish notes from a talk.

How to Participate on the wiki:

To edit a page on the wiki you have to get a pass. You can request a pass here.

Basically, you use this wiki to put forward what you would like to present at this year’s unconference. You decide what you would like to do and then post it up here. When we get closer to the date we will start to create a schedule for the day.

Here are some ideas about what you might do:

Discussion
What: A forum to discuss particular issues, e.g. The importance of concentrated listening

Demonstration
What: A way of showcasing software you have developed, e.g. A new max patch

Panel Discussion
What: Gathering together a panel of experts to discuss a particular topic, e.g. The future of independent radio in the UK

Presentation
A straight forward paper presentation but with a forum for feedback e.g. delivering an academic paper

Lightning Presentation
A Lighting presentation is a super-quick presentation format, based on the Pecha-Kuha format: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on a stage before the next presenter is up. We plan to have a session of around 10 of these so add it below. Ideal for showing of a new idea or advertising something you’re upto.

Add your proposal now…

Why a non-conference?

Expo is The UK’s largest weekend of free sound art and experimental music. Three days and nights of people enjoying, playing, discovering and listening to sonic art. Experience the wiki-conference (described above), a radiophonic intervention in the Royal Pavillion Gardens, installations and performances, shopping centre public art, club nights and film screenings across the streets, buildings and air waves of Brighton.

We think Expo is great, but this year we wanted to do somthing about the ‘conference’ part of it. Expo is all about allowing more people to engage with sonic art, but with the straight papers day style we felt it was alienating younger participants, especially those who weren’t working in an academic environment. So we thought we would flatten the whole thing out and put the onis on the community. Now, anyone can feel comfortable proposing a discussion, presentation, demo or whatever else you can think of.

We talked to our friends at Brighton University – in particular Conall Gleeson and Holger Zschenderlein – and we decided it would provide the perfect setting to try this concept out. With studio spaces, performance areas, rooms to present and chat in and more. There is a also a very nice cafe (where we are also having performances that night).