// ICAS – INTERNATIONAL CITIES OF ADVANCED SOUND
// ECAS - EUROPEAN CITIES OF ADVANCED SOUND
 
ICAS – International Cities of Advanced Sound – is a global network of independent, non-profit organizations dedicated to advancing sound cultures, music and related arts. ECAS – European Cities of Advanced Sound – is its european branch. The network’s aim is to create sustainable structures, to support the work of member organiations and to create a platform for knowledge sharing, critical reflection, co-productions, and cross-organisational events.
 
The ICAS / ECAS meeting at CTM.09 is the second big, international gathering of festival organisers focussed on sound production and related arts. Following several day long round-tables during Montréal’s Mutek festival in May 2008, this meeting will be dedicated to core elements of the network: knowledge sharing, the exchange of new projects, and the further development of the network. In line with ICAS / ECAS ideals of community and collaboration instead of competition between cultural entrepreneurs.
 
As a creative platform for reflection and learning on an individual and global level, calling on its members to constantly reinvent, question, inspire and challenge each other, the greater aim of ICAS / ECAS is to support members in building-up sustainable infrastructures to foster, promote and sponsor experimental and critical sound cultures within their specific localities and contexts.
 
ICAS / ECAS is about consciously linking these structures and places to build a positive form of globalization that accords local contexts and emerging talent greater value within an international framework.
 
Attendance at the daytime meetings requires registration.
> icas.us
 
 
// Public Events
 
WED 28/01 > 18:30–20:00
Discussion: On Emerging Networks – International network cooperations examplified by the Belarussian-Polish-German project "Connections".
 
Mat Schulz (AU/ PL), artistic director Unsound festival, Krakow
Stefan Betke (DE), musician, ~scape records, Berlin
Alain Mongeau (QC/ CA), artistic director Mutek festival, Montréal.
Vlad Buben (BY)
Moderation: Susanna Niedermayr (AT), Musikprotokoll, Graz
 
Working on an international scale always implies dealing with local particularities and cultural differences. The ongoing question is: how to use these differences in a positive way and make them productive? How can one join forces, respect each other’s diversity and nevertheless act collectively? The panel will take the example of the project "Connections", launched in September 2008 in Minsk, Belarus as a focal point. “Connections” involves the creation of a series of collaborative projects between music producers and sound artists from Western Europe and local musicians, producers and poets in Belarus. The first result is a free downloadable audio compilation released by scape in 2009.
 
 
THU 29/01 > 18:30 -20:00
Lecture: Creating Adaptive Organizational Structures in a Complex World
 
Kate Lesta (US)
Malcolm Levy (CA)
Tana Sprague (US)
 
In this lecture, Kate Lesta, member of ICAS, will talk about adaptive organisational structures on the basis of systems and theories, and lead discussion with fellow ICAS members around their unique experiences within their own organisations. How can collaborative work be a continuous successful learning process? A journey from the theoretical approach to practical guidelines discussing: how to deal with flat hierarchies; how to use the different skills of co-workers; sharing of responsibilities; and creating a transparent working flow. Malcolm Levy of New Forms Festival in Vancouver, BC and Tana Sprague of Recombinant Media Labs in San Fransisco will speak to their experience with participatory organisational structures and adaptivity. Kate Lesta is one of the organisers of the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts in Boulder, Colorado. Communikey is a member of ICAS
 
> communikey.us