Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:19

This year, a new online event of particular importance to the creative community is emerging at The Smalls (www.thesmalls.com). The Smalls Street Sounds, a rapidly growing sound collaboration, offers artists within film, music and sound a chance to evolve their craft through listening to the world around them – and the creative endeavors to follow are expected to be nothing short of unconventional, unusual and visionary.

Last December, after receiving support from Scion (www.scion.com) The Smalls was able to launch the event, now familiarly known as “Street Sounds”. The goal is to have more than 5,000 sound clips uploaded to the interactive Sound Map by April of 2010; Street Sounds is also currently hosting a successful short film competition with the possibility of attracting hundreds of unique short films that explore the sonic landscape of cities. To pair artists who record sounds with filmmakers and then allow sounds to guide the creation and production of original films may in itself not be something entirely unique. What is unique however is the freedom for individual expression inside Street Sounds, and the thrill that comes from the uncertainties that go with that kind of freedom.

“Anyone can upload sounds – anything from dialogue, bird song, ambient sound to music and more has room in our Sound Map” says Anna Grund, Founder of The Smalls. “Any sounds from your streets are welcome. We want you to invite us into your world, so that we can break out of our own. We want you to take a leap of faith with the Street Sounds and believe in the shared benefit for us all to listen to your street sounds – much like how someone else’s sounds can open up a new window into your own creativity.”

That leap of faith that Grund mentions is exactly what makes Street Sounds exciting – and so important. The event stands at the cusp of a new decade where Internet collaborations may be the key to new art forms and new creative expressions. If Street Sounds succeeds it could prove that we are not afraid to rub elbows and mix creative voices to achieve something greater than the sum of its parts, on a new and unprecedented scale.

Over the last few years, collaborative online art projects have achieved encouraging levels of success.  One Million Masterpiece (www.millionmasterpiece.com) for example, enlists artists to provide small square images through their online software, which will eventually be merged into one large digital canvas.  With nearly 30,000 artists signed up to date, they face a continuing challenge to achieve its goal of a million collaborators while sustaining other initiatives like raising money for charitable causes.

Other collaborations have had the luck of instantly going viral – “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music” brought together street musicians from different countries to play songs like “Stand By Me” and “One Love” in real-time using wireless internet technology.  In just a year, over 20 million people have seen these two videos alone; more videos, live tours, concerts, and screenings are currently being spun off from the project.  And again, there is the larger goal of the project – to inspire peace on earth through music.

So what kind of collaborations will we see materialize from The Smalls Street Sounds?  That is what makes this project exciting, as the possibilities are kept completely open.  After the filmmaking competition ends, there are plans for the Sound Map to remain active for anyone who wishes to visit and participate.  The platform will be available to achieve something like an aural One Million Masterpiece or for musicians to come together online for their own collaborative performance – but then there is everything in between, where all artists are encouraged to discover, explore and create their own unique projects.

For now, the Street Sounds film competition is drawing attention from many different kinds of film and music artists, who are hoping this event could be their ticket to get more creative with fellow artists and of course - be discovered. In the process they just need to source three sounds from the Sound Map and use these in their film (i.e. they have to collaborate in order to participate) and they also need to make sure they interpret one of the competition’s four themes. “We have chosen four motivational and open-ended themes for our film competition, themes that we hope will inspire filmmakers and empower them to take their visions one step further” says Grund. “After all, Street Sounds is all about going one step further – together”.

Ultimately, the potential of The Smalls Street Sounds come from its focus on serving the user.  This shared creative event has the potential to be fun and exciting, but the Sound Map can be an effective tool for years to come, and a starting point for unique artistic voices to emerge.  We may not have a clue what the end result will look or sound like yet, but we can dream about it.  And where would art be if there were no dreams?