MiddletownRemix:

Hear More, See More

A Festival of Art and Sound

Saturday, May 11, 2013, from 2pm to 5pm

FREE! (Rain or shine)

Festival Information Center: 575 Main Street, Middletown, CT (in front of It's Only Natural Market)

Click here to download the MiddletownRemix Festival Schedule and Map (opens as a pdf)

After a year of exploring, sharing, and remixing the sounds of Middletown on the MiddletownRemix website, celebrate the city's acoustic identity at a festival featuring 4 world premieres of works commissioned for the festival, 3 live DJ sets, 2 art/sound installations, a laptop orchestra, food trucks, graffiti art, and a gallery walk.*

Master of Ceremonies: DJ Arun Ranganathan

*(P.S. There will be a flash mob dance at 2:30pm)

Festival Stations

Enter to win MiddletownRemix festival prizes at each station!

Remix Sound Stage - In front of It's Only Natural Market, 575 Main Street

Listen to Middletown DJs remix the sounds of Middletown. The master of ceremonies DJ Arun Ranganathan, and Wesleyan student DJs Coral Foxworth '15 and William Brewster Lee '13, performs their remixes commissioned for the festival. Read about DJ Arun and his remix in this blog by Aletta Brady '15. Listen to remixes DJ Arun Ranganathan and DJ William Brewster Lee '13 on the Center for the Arts SoundCloud page.

The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center - 605 Main Street

View photographs by Dortha Willetts and sculpture by Bob Farace as part of the North End Gallery Walk.

Camera Obscura Art/Sound Installation - Southwest corner of Grand and Main Street

Walk into a 16' X 8' “camera,” created by Middletown artists Joe McCarthy and Peter Albano and commissioned for the festival. The environment inside this installation “recomposes” the sights and sounds of the festival, leaving you with the notion that your perspective of the world is powerfully influenced by the lens through which you choose to view it. Read this blog by Aletta Brady '15 to learn more.

Community Health Center of Middletown - 675 Main Street

Experience Lighthouse, beside the point, a world premiere sound installation by Wesleyan University Professor of Music Ronald Kuivila commissioned for the festival, in the beautiful glass pavilion atop the Community Health Center. Listen to the sounds of Middletown while seeing the city from an entirely different angle. Read more about this project in a blog by Michelle Agresti '14.

MAC 650 Gallery – 650 Main Street

View the “Hear More, See More Photography Exhibition,” curated by Carolyn Reeves, President of the MAC 650 Artist Coop, as part of the North End Gallery Walk. The photographic tribute to Middletown features images from novices to professionals, and shows a variety of shots of the city.

David Tudor's Rainforest IV Installation - 634 Main Street

Immerse yourself in David Tudor's Rainforest IV (1973), reconstructed by Wesleyan University music students under the direction of University Professor of Music Ronald Kuivila - an environment filled with found objects transformed into loudspeakers. Read more about this project in a blog by Michelle Agresti '14.

Sounds Like Graffiti - Luis Lopez Herb Garden, 629 Main Street

Watch Connecticut graffiti artist Ryan Christenson of RC Murals create and demonstrate graffiti artwork.

Green Street Arts Center - 51 Green Street

Hear the world premiere of MTRX (2012) by Jason Freeman of UrbanRemix, commissioned for the festival and performed by Wesleyan University's Toneburst Laptop & Electronic Arts Ensemble, directed by Assistant Professor of Music Paula Matthusen, at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm. Read more about MTRX (2012) in the blog by Michelle Agresti '14. View the Green Street Arts Center’s year-end exhibition of works created by afterschool students as part of the North End Gallery Walk.

Middletown Framing - 502 Main Street

View an exhibit related to the sounds of Middletown as part of the North End Gallery Walk.

Projected World Experience Art/Sound Installation - Alleyway between 484 and 500 Main Street 

Surround yourself with video, animation and MiddletownRemix sounds in a temporary, site-specific installation created by Middletown resident Marc Pettersen in conjunction with animation artist Cheryl Elliott and DJ and video artist Matt Weston, and commissioned for the festival using multiple projectors, mirrors and speakers. Read more about this project in the blog by Michelle Agresti '14.

Ursel's Web - 140 Washington Street

View work from the Middletown Art Guild as part of the North End Gallery Walk.

Flash Mob Dance - Main Street between Liberty and Ferry Streets

Don’t miss a flash mob dance at 2:30pm, choreographed by Wesleyan student Kelsey Siegel '13, performed to a hip-hop soundtrack created by DJ Arun Ranganathan incorporating sounds from MiddletownRemix. Learn the dance by watching the video, then and come perform on Saturday, May 11! (Meet at 2pm in front of It's Only Natural Market at 575 Main Street in Middletown, CT). Read this blog by Aletta Brady '15 to learn more.

"MiddletownRemix: Hear More, See More – A Festival of Art and Sound" is presented by Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts and Green Street Arts Center; made possible with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Middletown Commission on the Arts; and in partnership with the City of Middletown, Middletown Public Schools, WESU 88.1FM, Community Health Center of Middletown, It's Only Natural Market, MAC 650 Gallery, Middletown Framing, North End Action Team, NoRA Cupcake Company, and The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center, and the Middletown Relations Committee of the Wesleyan Student Association. The festival is also part of the year-long campus and community-wide exploration “Music & Public Life.”

MiddletownRemix is a collaborative, place-based sound project that enables people to develop and express the acoustic identity of greater Middletown. Want to record and contribute your own sounds, or create a remix? You still can! Click here for more details, and to get the free UrbanRemix app for iPhone/iOS and Android devices.

Special thanks to the many people who helped make this festival possible: Stephan Allison, Anne-Marie Cannata, Carrie Carella, Cassandra Day, Armida Espaillat, Marco Gaylord, Lee Godburn, Izzi Greenberg, Ann Grasso, Aldon Hynes, Bobbye Knoll, Mark Masselli, Christopher Pollack, Carolyn Reeves, Joseph Samolis, Don and Ann Marie Sataline, and Pierre Sylvain.

Thank you to the Wesleyan University staff and students: Barbara Ally, Claire Aletta Brady, Andrew Chatfield, John Elmore, Alecia Goldfarb, Gabriela De Golia, Sewon Kang, Ronald Kuivila, Cathy Lechowicz, Sara MacSorley, Paula Matthusen, Benjamin Michael, Jacob Musinsky, Hanna Oravec, Erinn Roos-Brown, Robert Russo, Croy Salinas, Leigh Stewart, Pamela Tatge, and Avery Trufelman.