Spark Festival of Electronic
Music and Art 2007
Special Event: Headphone Festival
The Headphone Festival at Spark
Originating in Europe in response to noise regulations placed on live music venues headphone festivals emerged as an alternative performance enviroment for electronic musicians. Particularly suited for electronic music and laptop based performances, the headphone festival concept spread throughout Europe with the launch of the international Le Placard Festival in 2002. The expanding Placard Festival takes place each year as a traveling concert and web-streaming event. The headphone festival concept is slowly emerging in the United States with recent festivals in San Francisco and the Rochester Art Center, MN.
The Headphone Festival at Spark features a dozen local, regional, and international musicians curated by Scott Stulen, Curator of Education at the Rochester Art Center. Experienced entirely through headphones, musicians will perform compositions comprised of field recordings, samples, live sound improvisation, and analog instruments output through a web of headphone jacks. Video clips will accompany many of the performances. The headphone festival merges the collective concert experience with the intestate listening environment of your own living room.
Please bring your own headphones to hear the performances.