[PMF~ 2026] Call for Works

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Ryan Olivier

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Nov 4, 2025, 1:44:54 PM (2 days ago) Nov 4
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The Performing Media Festival [PMF~ 2026] is celebrating its 10th year with multiple opportunities to showcase your audio-visual work. https://www.performingmediafestival.com/. 

Live performances and screenings will take place from March 12-14th, 2026, throughout the city of South Bend, Indiana, with a concurrent installation of audio-visual works exhibited in the South Bend Museum of Art from January-March.

This year's special guest artists will be David Bird and Beyond This Point. In keeping with tradition, IU South Bend's student electronic music ensemble, the Audio Visual Collective will also perform selected ensemble works from the following call. The festival will take place at the South Bend Museum of Art (Jan-Mar), the campus of Indiana University South Bend (Mar 12th & 13th), the Browning Cinema at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame (Mar 13th), in the Leighton Auditorium of the St. Joseph County Public Library (Mar 14th), and at Langlab South Bend (Mar 14th).

To round out our programming, we are seeking performative audio-visual works to present at this year's festival. For a description of how we have come to define "performative audio-visual works," please see the criteria for selection section below.

Fill out the form at https://www.performingmediafestival.com/call-for-works to submit a work for consideration. 
Questions can be sent to performin...@gmail.com.

Deadline for submission was November 15th, 2025 (11:59 PM EST), 
Acceptances will be sent via email by December 15th, 2025 (11:59 PM EST).
Performance Media (if applicable) will be due by January 1st (11:59 PM EST).

This year, there are seven categories:

1) Inclusion on a single-channel video reel (1080p-4K video, stereo audio) installed in the Project Room Gallery of the South Bend Museum of Art (SBMA) (installation runs Jan-Mar)

2) Screenings of Generative or Fixed-Media Audio-Visual Works (1080p-4K video, 2-8 channels of audio).

3) Live Audio-Visual Performance Works by Artist-Provided Performer/s (1080p video, 2-8 channels of audio)

4) Live Multimedia Ensemble Works for performance by the Audio Visual Collective (1080p video, 2-8 channels of audio). Submissions for this category should include a score/set of instructions for the Audio Visual Collective (AVC) to review. Additionally, the work should meet the following requirements:
  • Performative (Live) audio-visual media (Multimedia) involving at least two performers (Ensemble)
  • Written for electronic instruments and/or computers.
  • Note: Ensemble members have experience working with Max, SuperCollider, Processing, and other performing media applications; have access to common controllers (sliders, knobs, pads, tablets, etc..); and can read from score.
5) Interactive or Generative Audio-Visual Works for IU South Bend's IQ Video Wall (1080-8k or 4kx4-channel video, monophonic audio). For this special screening category works should meet one of the following requirements:
  • Standard single channel video (1080p-4k, 16:9)
  • Single channel video (8k) across a 4x2 grid of 16:9 screens
  • 4 channel video (4x4) displayed in 4 quadrants across 16 total screens (16:9) grouped in 4s.
6) Live Audio-Visual Sets [15-45 minutes] at Langlab South Bend on March 14th (1080p video, 2 channels of audio). To be considered for this opportunity, please submit a demo reel for review and provide any additional information about your planned set for the reviewers to consider. 

7) Live Scores for Cinema [shorts for full-length] for performance and screening at the Browning Cinema on the campus of Notre Dame on March 13th (1080-4k video, 2 channels of audio)

Note:
  • Works can be considered for more than one category, but please note the expectations for providing media, scores, and/or performers implied by each category.
  • For concert hall programming, preference is given to works 10 minutes or less.
  • Works longer than 10 minutes are welcomed in the screening or live audio-visual sets categories as well as longer films that feature live scoring like those programmed at the Browning Cinema.
  • Artists are allowed to make more than one submission.
  • There is no application fee or registration fee for the festival.
  • We strongly encourage submissions from traditionally underrepresented artists.
Because the festival cannot provide compensation or accommodation, selected artists are not required to attend unless they are performing the work. All selected artists will be provided a copy of the program from the festival. We will also be able to provide artists who travel to perform their work with documentation of their performance. Recommendations for travel and lodging will be available on www.performingmediafestival.com.

Criteria for Selection: Audio-Visual Works will be evaluated based on (1) their artistic merit and (2) how well they meet the criteria of “performing media,” and (3) the presenter’s ability to faithfully reproduce the work at the festival.
  • In 2014 Debora Bernagozzi curated a show entitled Performing Media: Works by Signal Culture Artists in Residence at the Everson Museum. "Performing media", as Debora called it, eloquently encapsulated the performance of multimedia works that underpins all the events of the current festival, named after that exhibition. Over the years, co-founders Ryan Olivier and Eric Souther came to define performing media as a genre that uses multimedia elements in a performative manner which so far has come to include live audio-visual performances, generative media processes, and edits/recordings of real-time captures. This evolving definition of performing media is re-evaluated each year along with the developing medium.
  • For simplicity’s sake: if one or more performer is actively engaging with some element of the audio-visual media (performing with, or alongside the audio, visuals, or other technological medium) OR the media itself is performative (e.g. generative) then the work likely fits within the conventions of the festival. Live scores, like those commonly programmed at the Browning Cinema, also fall into this definition. Remember, edits/recordings of real-time captures are welcomed in the screening categories.
  • While many works in the past have included music and video, the festival has also included works with dance, DIY electronics/lighting, and poetry. We look forward to seeing how the expanding definition of performing media grows with this year’s festival.

A brief overview of the programming schedule is provided below, but please know that dates and programming are subject to change:

January-March:
March 12th:
March 13th:
March 14th:


-Ryan Olivier (Host)

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