Stimuleringsfonds

Four proposals have been selected in Upstream: Music x Design. Coordinator Ibrahim Alaoui Chrifi reflects on the first round of this year.

30 June 2021

general impression
The applications that the Fund received in this round come from various corners of the music industry: the electronic music scene, rock and folk music, the hip-hop genre and traditional pop music. Designers involved in the applications relate to the broad creative industry and specialize in games, scenography, technology, fashion and design. The multidisciplinary practice of several applicants is striking; they are active at the intersection of art, design, performance and music. We also see how the past year has led to alternative forms of performance being developed further. Driven by design applications, innovative elements are being added to music more and more often, creating a richer and more accessible experience. The round demonstrated that this development is gaining increasing depth. We also saw that socio-critical themes were well represented in various applications, and that in a number of projects makers were taking the stage from several different perspectives.

To give an idea of the breadth of the projects supported in this round:

Oculus – Stichting Anthropologists in Art
Musician Pink Oculus is collaborating with designers/artists Dennis Vandenbroeck and Boris Acket on an audiovisual installation for the tour linked to her upcoming album. In this installation, called Oculus, four elements come together: music, spatial design, lighting design and substantive research. The starting point is Pink Oculus's personal experiences with black and female empowerment, and the reference to the Afrofuturist art movement. Oculus transforms the standard performance space into a shared modern temple, where stories about the past, present and future merge.

Games in Concert: The Game – Stichting Wild Vreemd
Game music is a style of music that is gaining more and more attention. Smartphone Orchestra + the Metropole Orchestra are going one step further: they are developing an interactive form of concert and enthusing a new audience (game makers) for orchestral music and attending concerts, by integrating gameplay with the music. The audience literally takes part with their own smartphones and becomes part of the orchestra. During the concert, the audience plays The Game: a deliberately abstract game in which the audience gradually discovers that it has to work together to reach the next level. The result is an innovative, interactive audience experience that shows what is possible when an orchestra and musicians let the audience contribute to the total concert experience with the help of game mechanics.

numbers
The budget available for this round was € 150,000. Of the 14 subsidy applications taken into consideration, 4 are receiving grants. This brings the percentage of applications receiving grants to 29%. The coming deadline for the Upstream: Music x Design Grant Scheme is 1 September 2021.