THE WHITE CUBE REMIX PROJECT

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 7, 2009


INTRODUCTION

The RAM Gallery, founded in 1989, is a free-admission non-profit museum in Oslo,Norway. The gallery displays modern art and handi-crafts. The gallery presents six to nine exhibitions a year, devoting itself to the excitement in the intersection of fine art, arts and crafts, textile art, architecture and design. As the gallery completes its twentieth year in operation, a celebration of this integrated space for art is the order of the day.


“The White Cube" is an exhibit to take place in the RAM Gallery. Exhibit curator Rolf Gerstlauer approached Sackjo22 and Gurdonark to ask whether members of our CCmixter sharing music culture might soundtrack this exhibition. Thus, the "White Cube Remix Project" was born.


“The White Cube” is a concept in architecture to describe the traditional gallery space. Through this exhibition, it is the goal of the curator to broaden this construct, and to explode “the white cube” by using light and sound. As “The White Cube” takes place in a winter season in Norway, the idea of art as white lights amid a dark night on a seemingly moonless sky motivates the background of the piece.

HOW THE MIXTERS CAN JOIN IN

Sackjo22 created an a capella track called "The White Cube". Gurdonark created an ambient track called "Winter Lights", and an ambient sample pack with short drone and tone material for the creation of ambient/chill pieces by the remixer.

Sackjo22's sample is to be used in songs for the "foreground" of the piece, seeking remixes suitable to a dynamic museum space, with the melodies the mixters know how to make. The "foreground" pieces may be in any of a variety of styles (and of course may use beats). These songs should incorporate the spoken word track and should be appropriate to the artspace, but are not bound to any one genre.

Gurdonark's section is the "background" of the effort, seeking beatless ambient and downtempo pieces to be used as soundtrack music in the spaces between the songs. The goal is to create a mega-mix of CCmixter music that will be continuously looped to wish a happy birthday to the intersection of art and design through weaving music into the mix.

Each mixter chosen for the megamixes will get attribution. We are also considering ways to create tangible documentation of the project as well, which can be provided to each participating mixter. We believe this will be an exciting matter.


Sackjo22 and Gurdonark will be assembling the mega-mix. We hasten to assure you that we put our trust in the community rather than in some artificial "submission" process. Hence, while we reserve the right to moderate the submissions, and omit submissions entirely off the mark (or, also, outside the rules), our intent is to welcome all comers, and show the Mixter community in its glory.

We do hope you will participate in this very special event.


HERE ARE THE RULES

A. All uploads must be Attribution only, so any samples you use should either be your own or attribution samples (i.e., CC-BY). Please do not use attribution non-commercial or sampling plus samples for this project, because although the gallery is a non-profit, we do not want to worry with possible licensing issues.


B. All uploads must use either the Sackjo22 sample or the Gurdonark sample, or both. We value diversity in the submissions, but wish to have each upload tie back to one of the "thematic" original pieces.


C. Please tag your upload: whitecube. This will let us easily find your upload for the purpose of curating the mega-mix.


D. Please write about how you made your song, and, if you wish, your thoughts on the theme the White Cube/White Lights.


E. The "foreground" songs made with the Sackjo22 material should be the song you'd want to hear if you visited a really cool art museum in Norway in the dead of a wonderful winter.


F. The background songs should be like soundtrack music--beatless, ambient/chill, and a set of atmospheres in which to immerse oneself in new images and new ideas.


G. Important: Deadline for upload: December 7

THE WHITE CUBE by SACKJO22

You set the tea light on the table
its flicker a delicate tease of what you might see
the early shadows barely breathe in that intimacy
as you look, as you reach
recognition bursts!
its brightness the brightest sun reflected on fields of snow
so in that moment the whole room explodes.

We start as a white cube
with a floor and walls
where we put up our ideas
and watch them hang,
and then we take them down again.

In this space, we speak of the color white
the color of all colors combined
the color of all of our options
the color of our connection that traverses space and time.

December in the north
the darkness lingers
so that even the shade of the moon seems bright.
You reach out and grab that light
the palpable, tangible meaning of life.

-- SackJo22

CAN WE IMPLODE/EXPLODE THE WHITE CUBE?

"The White Cube" is a traditional concept used in architecture to describe an ideal gallery or museum space. Through the use of simple lines, white walls, specific placement of entry ways, lights, etc. "the white cube" is meant to create an environment that supports the optimal conditions for the encounter between the perceiver and the work being perceived in the gallery space.

Architect Rolf Gerstlauer, and curator the the RAM Gallery anniversary exhibition, suggests the time has come to explode "the white cube" -- to expand the concept of the neutral viewing space to a space that encourages relationship and connection to the larger world, the world outside the pristine space of the gallery or museum.

One way in which "the white cube" can be opened is through the use of light which can completely alter the gallery experience. The quality of the light itself can be a medium of "...transition, transmitting, transformation, transmutation and transcendence." Traditionally, light in the gallery setting is used to enhance the art on display. Here, the atmosphere and mood created by the light are integral to the experience of the space. "Light is the matter that has the power to explode the space -- or have it implode on itself."

Light also comes into "the white cube" through other mediums that foster a shift in awareness and perspective, so that the energy within the space vibrates with possibility. Broadly interpreted, light is the moment of recognition. It is feeling connected. It is inspiration. It is vitality.

Through our contribution, we explore the meaning of light, and intend for our sound of light to be part of the transforming energy in the RAM Gallery space that will help explode "the white cube."