RAPTORreloaded

Acoustic land art in the vineyard.

2162 Falkenstein, Dürnberg Wine Estate, (Mistelbach area, Lower Austria)
Austrian Radio Corporation, ORF Ö1, Kunstradio

Programme

Sat August 29th, 4 PM, Dürnberg Wine Estate.
Installation opening, presentation of the selected artist's works, picnic in the vineyards.

Sun August 30th to Mon October 26th, daily from sunup to sundown, vineyards of Dürnberg.
Installation playing. Bird defense by sound art.

Sun August 30th to Sun October 18th, weekly, 11 PM , Kunstradio.
Broadcast of RAPTORrelaoded radio miniatures featuring one selected artist.

Sun October 25th 11 PM, Kunstradio.
"RAPTOR remixed": Radio remix of the installations.

Mon October 26th, 4 PM, Dürnberg Wine Estate.
Closing event in the vineyards. Presentation of the selected artist's works, vine tasting in the "Schmitt'n".

Scary to birds, pleasant to men.

When the grapes ripen in the fall, vineyards often are threatened by immense swarms of birds. The birds, starlings amongst them, eat considerable amounts of ripe grapes before it's time to harvest.

To save their fruit, winemakers try to scare the birds away, often using acoustical means. Modern systems use sound like the calls of raptors or gunshots. With RAPTORreloaded, we go a step further and incorporate sound art into these acoustic systems.

With RAPTORreloaded, we build a permanent sound installation in public space, which is both useful and artistically challenging. Its first installment will take place in the vineyards of Falkenstein, Lower Austria, in the fall of 2009, as part of the regional festival "Viertelsfest 2009".

We invite composers and sound artists from all over the world to contribute with their own art. Each work will be played for one week, every day between sunrise and sunset. All compositions will serve the same purpose: being pleasant to men, but scary to the birds.

Each work will further be presented on the national radio programme of ORF Kunstradio with a three minutes field recording. On October twenty fifth, all compositions will take part in a forty minute radio mix.