About MOTM

Music on the Meadow (MOTM) is an ecosystem beyond a festival. A site for celebration, gathering, mourning, remembering, rethinking, unlearning.

MOTM is a long-term antidisciplinary and collaborative project conceived by artist and Assistant Professor of Music Jay Afrisando, acting as Lead Curator. Housed at the UCSC Music Department, located at the edge of the UCSC great meadow, the project aims to curate, perform, showcase, publish, and archive convention-defying works that are difficult to thrive in the ‘normative’ or mainstream platforms and opportunities, like species growing and living on (or in, over, above, and throughout) a meadow. Such works may include—but are not limited to—performance, exhibition, zine, workshop, symposium, and archiving, as well as combinations, in-between, or beyond.

MOTM recognizes that a meadow is a problematic site. Some meadows exist naturally; others emerge as a colonial landscape conservation. Considering this, MOTM aims to be a platform for artists, scholars, faculty, students, staff, non-academics, and the general public to share decolonial, anti-white-supremacy, anti-capitalist, anti-ableist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchy, anti-xenophobic, anti-human-centric, and other anti-discriminatory works. MOTM asks what it means for us to live in/with a colonial and vulnerable space and find ways to resist and refuse the narratives that oppress the Other.

Inspired by the nature of species living on/in/around a meadow, MOTM aims to develop and share low-key, modest works. They can be short, small, brief, sneaking, messy, scattered, hidden, low-budget, ephemeral. But low-key ≠ low quality or low impact. In this era of scarcity, MOTM promotes low-key works that thrive and shine—not despite, but—because of funding, space, time, and other systemic limitations.

MOTM aims to invite Guest Curators from various backgrounds to collaborate with Lead Curator to formulate curatorial concepts, invite participants through open calls, and co-organize programs in each episode. Regardless of how it is disseminated or published, every episode will be documented and archived to reach the general public. In addition, MOTM welcomes partnerships with other organizers or events throughout the UCSC and public communities.

Your Questions Answered

What kind of works does MOTM seek?

MOTM seeks works that can spark conversations and drive future actions across the MOTM ecosystem and the public audience. MOTM seeks works that push boundaries, not for the sake of it, but to locate works within the societal, political, bodily, and environmental struggles. In addition, MOTM prioritizes processes, methodologies, and open-ended outcomes over predetermined outcomes. Each episode will feature different works, depending on its programming.

Who can serve as Guest Curators?

UCSC members, including graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, lecturers, and staff—and to some extent, public members from outside UCSC—who may/may not have previous curatorial experiences, can serve as Guest Curators. MOTM aims to dismantle assumptions about who can/cannot be a curator, and particularly welcomes community members who are historically underrepresented and marginalized in curation.

Lead Curator will invite one or more members to be Guest Curators for different episodes. Depending on the episode context, Guest Curators may be selected by invitation or through an open call. For most episodes, an open call will be prioritized.

What is the hierarchy between Lead Curator and Guest Curators?

Lead Curator serves multiple roles: co-curator, co-facilitator, and designer of experience. Guest Curator(s) serve multiple roles: co-curator, co-facilitator, and designer of experience.

Although the hierarchy is clear that Lead Curator initiates all programming, MOTM strives to create fluid hierarchies between Lead and Guest Curators and ensures that every program advances justice, access, equity, diversity, and inclusion to address structural change.

Can Guest Curators develop a curatorial concept as part of their curriculum or teaching-learning activities?

Absolutely, as long as the curriculum supports the narratives of creating/sharing creative-scholarly projects that go beyond the conventional, privileged, and oppressed educational systems, and supports their students in doing so.

MOTM understands that integrating MOTM and teaching curricula can be powerful for generating actions beyond class and scholarship reinforcement within teaching-learning activities. However, the said open call should also be designed to accommodate applicants outside the said class, and the curatorial concept should go beyond merely satisfying the grading requirements. In this kind of integration, MOTM aims to be a platform that advances the liberation of education.

What is the MOTM nature within the UCSC Music Department?

MOTM is conceived as something that sits in the in-between and the realm of antidisciplinarity, but that can go every year or twice a year. Given its nature, it is intended to be departmentally independent of the April in Santa Cruz (AiSC) Creative Music Festival, but can be in partnership with or coincide with AiSC every Spring.

Is MOTM for profit?

MOTM is a non-profit ecosystem. MOTM seeks funding primarily to support the project creation. However, given funding constraints, MOTM does not intend to pay Guest Curators and ecosystem participants for their labor. This is to ensure fairness if not all episodes are funded.

Still, MOTM recognizes the labors of all MOTM organizing members, including Lead Curator, Guest Curators, and crew members. Therefore, MOTM will ensure the organizing workload is kept as low as possible and will acknowledge them through proper crediting. In addition, MOTM also strives to be an ecosystem that connects all the ecosystem participants with each other and outside its network to build more collaborations, camaraderie, and care within and beyond MOTM.

Can I send you questions, feedback, or other contributions?

Yes! Please send them to Jay Afrisando at motm.ucsc@protonmail.com.