When John DeLore and Julie Shapiro took to the stage last fall at Resonate to announce the arrival of their new collaboration Audio Flux, you could measure the buzzy energy in the room.
Their announcement arrived during a noticeable slump in industry morale. Close the tabs on the doomsday stories; here was something new thing to focus on, which was actually an old thing—short audio.
During this past year, it was rare for me to find a series less than six episodes; total listening time routinely top 8-10 hours. These indepth stories demand a heafty time allotment from both audience and maker.
A scant few really need all those hours, I suspect most are not edited tighly enough, and others are purposely doing it to avail more ad spots. I often could spot 10-15 minutes in some episodes that were not crucial to the story. Some could really trim off a whole episode or two if they had yielded to a story thread that didn’t push the story as a whole.
And here was a reminder that small can also be beautiful. And creative. And maybe even consequential.
The Audio Flux announcement came on the last day of the fest, but if you were paying attention, the message was written on the wall in illustrations by Wendy McNaughton, first creative partner to Audio Flux, in the lobby of the gorgeous Institute of Contemporary Art where Resonate was taking place: Audio is a visual medium.
Audio Flux has just moved into the public call phase
This week, Audio Flux announced they’ve opened Circuit 3, their first public call-out, for short audio works of no more than three minutes.
But beyond the three-minute rule, along with the requirement to adhere, widely and audibly, to the prompts, the great world of audio is wide open to you. It’s genre-agnostic; and creatively-motivated. Their latest creative partner, Ben Lenovitz, pet portraitist, offers some visual inspiration for where your audio can bring us.
Listen to my interview with Julie and John, either here in Substack, or in any podcast player, to dig into what the spirit of Audio Flux is, what exactly these prompts are telling you, and where this whole exciting thing is headed.
LISTEN ON:
Pocket Casts
Spotify
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11 Things You Need To Know About Audio Flux, and Circuit 3 (with timecode):
[1:10] Audio Flux is back! But where did the idea originate? Meet Julie and John
[4:20] Here’s how it relates to the OG days of Third Coast Festival
[8:22] This is what Audio Flux is NOT
[9:48] Here’s the artist collaborator for Circuit 3
[12:25] Welcome to the bigger vision of Audio Flux
[15:29] Audio Flux ALSO goes live?!
[17:01] Is this a paid thing? Answered here
[17:28] Here’s what happens to the IP of your Audio Flux…and all the details about what these contracts actually look like
[19:31] Deeper explanation about the 4 prompts of Circuit 3
[20:10] Here’s Ben Lenovitz’s website, and his Instagram
[22:19] Who should submit to Audio Flux?!
Widely But Audibly: Audio Flux Is Back For Circuit 3