The purpose of this call is to encourage artists to find creative new ways to convey scientific ideas through their music. Participants are invited to submit their creations as soundfiles* (with a maximal duration of 10’ minutes), which will be object of an open online voting process on the weeks following the the submission deadline of February 15th, 2018.

The pieces have to be inspired on some of the materials (images, animations, graphs) available atwww.soundsof.net/materials. The ‘sound’ (piece/recording/sonification etc.) selected by the community as best conveying the scientific idea will be awarded with €2000.

1. Terms of application

1.1 Who can apply?

- composers of every age and nationality

1.2 What to submit

You can submit ‘sound works’ of any kind and genre. It could be a recording, an electroacoustic piece, a sonification or a combination of all those. We particularly encourage the use of a creative approach and the piece’s ability to convey the specific idea (image, animation, concept) by means of sound alone. The only limitations are:

• Length: all submissions must be under 10’ minutes. A larger piece divided in different movements is not acceptable either; a submission must contain only 1 sound file.

• Originality: Remixing someone else’s work, as well of any kind of copyright infringement is not acceptable. No transcriptions or arrangements (except arrangements of the composer's own works) will be eligible.

NOTE: Although the use of voice is perfectly fine, in the piece the music should speak for itself. If you have any questions concerning these limitations or any other aspects, don’t hesitate to email us at soundsofmatter@univie.ac.at.

1.3 Application material

1) Complete the online application form (soundsof.net/call4sounds) Applicants may submit up to 2 works to the Call4Sounds, regardless of their submissions to the other two categories (MAIN andMDW category).

2) Submit a short program note about the work (max. 1 page A4, in English) where you explain the connection between your piece and any the materials (image, idea, animation, concept, dataset etc.) available at www.soundsof.net/materials that inspired you. The relevance of this connection will be, together with the quality of the music submitted, the primary evaluation criterion. It is therefore in the applicant’s best interest that the concept is clear, accurate, and related to one of the seven research lines (Nano carbon-metal hybrids, Nucleation, Polymers, 2D-Materials, Metallic glass, Ferroic Materials, Diffusion) presented on the website. Incomplete or vague applications will NOT be considered.

All materials should be submitted electronically. If unable to submit a digital application via the provided online form, please send us all application materials via e-mailsoundsofmatter@univie.ac.at with the SUBJECT: ‘Call4Sounds’. You are strongly encouraged to use Dropbox, Google Drive, or other free cloud storage for any extra materials as they may be too large to send as email attachments. Application deadline will be February 15th, 2018. Late applications will not be considered.

2. Online voting

On the five weeks following the submission deadline, an online voting process will begin. The process will be open, so anybody interested will be able to vote for their preferred piece at gallery.soundsof.net.

3. Nomination

At the end of the voting process, the results will be announced by the organisation and the winner of the €2000 prize will be made public.

4. Interactive installation

Together with the winning piece, the organisation will select seven pieces to be part of an outdoors interactive installation at the the University of Vienna. Selected composers will be notified in advance and special participation diplomas will be issued for them.

5. Change of terms

The «Sounds of Matter» composition competition reserves the right to change these terms in the best interest of the project.

*) The sound files will be necessarily compressed in order to upload them to the online voting facility. That is why lossless formats, although accepted, are not encouraged. We will transcode all submitted soundfiles to 128 kbit/s, cbr, joint stereo.