Hack the Bells Launches
Blog first posted on Sarah Stierch — The Culture Feed.
July 1 - the world’s first interdisciplinary open license contest celebrating the carillon launched: Hack the Bells. An esteemed jury of cultural visionaries will be awarding $1,000 USD and the opportunity for the grand prize winner’s work to be exhibited and acquired by the University of California, Berkeley and the Anton Brees Carillon Library.
What makes this so groundbreaking?
One, it celebrates the peoples instrument – the carillon - a bell tower of epic proportions found in cities around the world, including the famous Campanile at the University of California’s Berkeley campus. Carillon’s ring out the time of the day on the hour, and at noon, concerts take place around the world, freely able to be heard (and felt) by anyone within the right distance, as carillonists perform original and classic works written specifically for the world’s largest instrument. (Learn more, here).
Second, all works submitted are freely licensed under Creative Common’s Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. These works will be legacy pieces – allowing others to find inspiration in their creations, the works to be forever attributed, and newly created works using the submitted works being published under the same free license forever. All compositions, recordings, and media we have provided are licensed under the same license by carillon composers & photographers. Creative freedom takes a bold stance here, and we are shouting from Sather Tower about it.
[embed <iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lxOLyoLTu7w" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>]
The above video features Tiffany Ng, my co-organizer, talking about carillon’s and performing.
Third, it’s interdisciplinary and international. Anyone can submit in any language and any type of creative and innovative work. The opportunities are endless: performance art, remixes, smartphone apps, paintings, poetry, short stories, video art, robots – anything! Get creative! We’re encouraging applicants to consider submissions related to: the 2014-15 Centennial of the Campanile, accessibility in the tradition of the campanile providing music for public space, and openness related to open culture and licensing.
Our jury comprises of awesome innovators.
Jeff Davis - University Carillonist, University of California, Berkeley
Alex Freeman - Director of Special Projects, New Media Consortium
Lizzy Jongma - Data manager, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Susan Miller - Program Manager, Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research, University of California, Berkeley
Greg Niemeyer - Professor of Art Practice, Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media, University of California, Berkeley
Learn more about who they are and what they do, here. Thank you to our sponsors: Berkeley Center for New Media, Anton Brees Carillon Library, Meyer Sound, the Open Knowledge Foundation’s OpenGLAM initiative, The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, and the Hargrove Music Library at UC Berkeley.
Submission: deadline September 1 2014 by 11:59 PST. There is no cost to submit.
Please visit the Hack The Bells website to learn more and submit your entries. (#hackthebells!)