ouroboros

The Ouroboros originates from the Greek; it is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe; an immortal, mythologically constructed beast. The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet

Ouroboros is a collaborative sound installation where its many parts are seamlessly spliced together.

Ouroboros is a collage of many audio works from different composers and sound artists. Each audio work is layered with each other to create seamless sonic landscape. This sonic landscape is designed to be looped onto itself as a standalone sound installation for continuous playback.

Each music contribution to ouroboros is layered over the previous collage of music ouroboros contained previously. Once layered the contribution become part of the collage work and a new ouroboros is formed as the foundation for a new audio work to be layered with the collage. The head and tail of ouroboros is meant to seamlessly transition to each other in order to give the illusion of no break in the music when the ouroboros is looped in continuously playback.

Robert Voisey created this project in order to provide a venue for electronic composers and sound artists to collaboratively create together a layered soundscape that is designed to be played continuously as a sound installation.

Guidelines for submissions:

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  - Each submission must be uploaded online as a .wav or .aiff file
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  - The submission and ouroboros must overlap.
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  - The submission must be less in length than the current ouroboros audio and have no more than 30 seconds of solo material.
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  - The head and tail of the submission overlapped with ouroboros must be seamless.
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  - If the submission is meant to be a "head" for ouroboros you must indicate when the ouroboros sound file starts after the submission begins.
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  - If the submission is meant to be a "tail" for ouroboros you must indicate when the submission sound file starts after ouroboros begins.
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  - By submitting you agree to be part of a collaborative sound installation meant for artistic and promotional purposes. No compensation will be provided unless indicated by an outside funding source. Any outside funding will be used to further promote the project and/or provide for installation performances.

Ouroboros will be calling for submissions soon.

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