Call for Engagement:

MOTM Eps. 0: Music with the Meadow

May 8, 2026 (backup date: May 15, 2026)

Co-curated by Marc Perez, Lukáš Janata, Kev Young (Guest Curators), Ben Leeds Carson (Co-director of April in Santa Cruz Creative Music Festival 2026), and Jay Afrisando (Lead Curator). Organized in partnerships with the April in Santa Cruz (AiSC) Creative Music Festival 2026 and the UC Climate Action Arts Network (CAAN).

Link to the application form.

What does listening with the meadow feel/sound/look like? How does the meadow reciprocally influence our listening?

The UCSC Music Department resides on the edge of the UCSC great meadow. From that building, one has a vantage point to look at the meadow’s horizon. Many regulars walk onto the balcony to feel the meadow, while some people just seem to pass by, and others do not have access to—or even might not know about the existence of—the meadow.

A meadow—and the great meadow—is a problematic site. Some meadows exist naturally; others emerge as a colonial landscape conservation. Meadows play key roles, whether in balancing the ecosystem or destroying natural symbiosis through careless construction. Regardless of conditions, meadows are often a site for low-thriving species that otherwise would not be able to survive elsewhere.

The great meadow, despite its stillness, has been a ‘witness’ to the colonialism happening on this land, both physically and metaphorically. We have taken the meadow for granted, and if we keep treating it as pure beauty without questioning its existence and our behaviors towards it, we are complicit in colonialism.

What MOTM is looking for

MOTM invites engagement from students, artists, scientists, scholars, and culture bearers to participate in “listening with the meadow,” which takes place on the Music balcony and in the meadow extending from the balcony.

Here are non-exhaustive guidelines for the engagement:

• We are not looking for firm “answers” to address or remedy colonialism within posthuman and interspecies relationships.

• We aim for communal and educational learning experiences (rather than presentational ones, such as those in formal arts shows or performances in conventional spaces).

• We are not expecting the “engagers” to bring full, complete projects. Each participant will bring more of “puzzle” pieces.

• We are expecting works that can be carried out flexibly, on the move, and without being plugged into electricity sockets. However, we welcome works that may use mobile electronics, such as laptops, bluetooth loudspeakers, and tablets, among others. This is a DIY event.

• We are aiming to create an ephemeral community during the event around the Music Department balcony and the meadow area near it, where crowds can spread and disperse (not fixed).

• We are looking for decolonial, anti-white-supremacy, anti-capitalist, anti-ableist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchy, anti-xenophobic, anti-human-centric, and other anti-discriminatory works.

MOTM is calling for proposals of genre-defying, broadly-categorized works that may involve (but not strictly fall into) these categories or their combinations:

• any kind of music- or sound-making

• any kind of dance or choreography of bodyminds

• any kind of theater of human or nonhuman

• any kind of drawing

• any kind of guided listening walk or rest

• any kind of creative data presentation (visualization/sonification)

• any kind of engagement with various materials or (non)human interactions

• … surprise us!

Who can engage

This call for engagement is open to students, artists, scientists, scholars, and culture bearers regardless of their levels of merit and artistic/scholarly backgrounds.

Application

Applicants will complete a simple Google Form application that may take approximately 15-30 minutes.

Here are the questions from the application form:

• Your email address
  
  

• Your name
  
  

• Please describe your artistic/scholarly practice (150 words max)
  
  

• What is your engagement idea responding to Episode 0: Music with the Meadow? (200 words max)
  
  

• Please list any accommodation you require/need and any equipment or materials you will bring with you.

We expect you to bring all the necessary equipment/materials. We are limited in our capacity to provide material accommodations. However, we will try to accommodate you through a conversation to generate creative solutions.

• How long do you expect your engagement to run? The duration of your submission can be flexible—we will coordinate with you to make it work.
  
  

• Link to a work sample or documentation to give a sense of how your work will exist within the event.
  
  

• (Optional) Link to an audio/video file for those who prefer to submit an audio/video application.
  
  

• If you are not selected, are you willing to join the team as a crew member to help run the program? (Yes/No/Maybe)

Timeline

• Deadline for the Call for Engagement submission: April 13, 11:59 pm PST.

• We will reach out to you about the next steps by April 22, 2026.

Notes

• The event is expected to run on Friday, May 8, 2026, in the late afternoon for a few hours.

• In case of rain, a backup date is Friday, May 15, 2026, at the same time. Selected participants are expected to be flexible in case of rain.

• Please use safe, non-flammable materials in your engagement.

• MOTM, unfortunately, cannot offer any fees to support your participation or the making of your works.

• If you have any questions regarding the application and/or the application process, please feel free to contact Jay Afrisando at jafrisan@ucsc.edu. 

Team

• Marc Perez (Guest Curator, Artist, DMA Graduate)

• Lukáš Janata (Guest Curator, Artist, DMA Graduate)

• Kev Young (Guest Curator, Artist, Music Undergraduate)

• Ben Leeds Carson (Guest Curator, Co-director of April in Santa Cruz Creative Music Festival, Professor of Music)

• Jay Afrisando (Lead Curator, Artist, Assistant Professor of Music)