a canary torsi by Yanira Castro, Rozalia Jovanovic and YOU :: Call for Proposals: Deadline: March 16, 2009.

New modes of communication create new meanings, and new narratives. With the rise of the twitterverse, new vocabulary has given way to new modes of dialogue. a canary torsi is currently commissioning the creation of a new work using Twitter + Twitter’s API. Participants will be asked to take 2 existing twitter feeds of 2 fictional characters and develop a new art work in the form of: 1. an installation 2. website, micro-site, or web app 3. data visualization 4. or any other suitable medium.

The (fictional) Twitter feeds (Doghebitedme and Darkbloom8) are connected to a live dance performance that takes place in public bathrooms. They are the two characters in the piece. The dance is set to premiere in New York at the Gershwin Hotel in June 2009. If selected, your piece will be shown in conjunction with the June performance and will be promoted with the staged show.

We want to see projects addressing these questions + themes: How are asynchronous conversations taking place online? What is public and private information?

The winning proposal will receive $1000 to create their work.

How to Submit: 1. Download the applications here. 2. Email your completed proposals to acanarytorsi [at] gmail.com

Proposals are due by March 16, 2009.
Notifications will go out April 1, 2009.
The project will be expected to launch by May 30, 2009.

About the Author: The twitter feeds are written by Rozalia Jovanovic, a writer in Columbia University’s MFA program who was a recent fellow at The MacDowell Colony. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, Elimae and Esquire.com, and is forthcoming in The Believer.

About a canary torsi: a canary torsi is a new structure under which Yanira Castro makes work alone and with others. It is a repository, a card catalogue, a way of inciting others, housing the things we make and making them available to you. It is a way of presenting.

Yanira Castro is a director/choreographer living in Brooklyn. She has made dance installations for theaters, warehouses, bathrooms, a cellar, a former bathhouse. She is interested in constructing scenarios for people that engage different ways of experiencing live performance: you are separated from your companions upon arrival; you are given your own headphones to overhear a surgery; you watch a live performance from a TV in your hotel room; you are shut inside a bathroom with two people having an emotional exchange. She forces a personal encounter with the work. Yanira is the instigator of a canary torsi and is currently engaged in the creation of interactive cyber-environments that act as stand-alone works and are connected to a live performance.