proposal for Dictaphonia Fest

I am working on setting up a Dictaphonia Fest in early November.

My friend Chris Miller and I went and had coffee at The Laboratory last evening. The Laboratory is a new cafe that just opened up here in Gainesville - they serve coffee, beer, wine, and gourmet sandwiches. We discussed numerous things with Larry Bruce, the proprietor. He calls himself "Chief Scientist" and wears a lab coat. When I pitched the idea of a microcassette-based show he seemed to like the idea!

I am going to propose Saturday, November 7th to him.

The idea in a nutshell, for now, is that I will invite only participants in the Dictaphonia project to come to Gainesville to perform at the show.

Performers must use microcassette in their performances and it must be a prominent part of the sound. The artists will be asked to perform short sets of under nine minutes.

Interesting, eh? I say interesting because I think it will be a real challenge to the the performers - in most cases the Dictaphonia artists used microcassette to RECORD what they were doing. This performance idea challenges them to use that machine as a performance instrument - to process sound with it, or whatever, however. Other than to stipulate that the performers "must use microcassette in their performances and it must be a prominent part of the sound" I won't give any further direction... other than to urge them to use minimal (and preferably lo tech) gear, with quick setup and breakdown times. It is my hope that the performers will do more than just play back a microcassette tape while they make other sounds, but at a bare minimum that would be acceptable.

I am also considering using only small guitar amplifiers, and I am CONSIDERING stipulating that everybody play through the same small amps that I will supply. Oh, and one more thing - this won't be billed as a Noise show - I prefer the term experimental music (or audio art). I am not sure yet, but I might bill it as a showcase of microcassette art.

It will probably be produced under the "Hal McGee presents" banner.