This year marks the 700th anniversary of the completion of Dante’s Divine Comedy, one of the greatest works of world literature, and one that continues to inspire artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers to this day.
Inferno, the most well-known part of The Divine Comedy, is an astonishing work of imagination, and an incredibly evocative description of the nine circles of Hell – but what might Dante’s Hell have sounded like?
Our latest global project, Inferno, asks sound artists and musicians to imagine the nine circles of Hell in sound in a brand new series of compositions that will, in their entirety, bring Dante’s Inferno to life through sound.
How the project works:
- Each marker on the diagram below is labelled with a number. Select TWO areas of the Inferno from the diagram (e.g. “The Lustful” or “The Sorcerors”) that you’d be interested in using as a basis for a sonic composition as your first and second choices, and email them to us.
- We will then allocate ONE of those areas to you, trying to get you your first choice wherever possible – areas will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and there are only limited spaces available in the project!
- You’ll then create a brand new composition based on however the allocated part of the Inferno inspires you – you can write a new piece of music, use elements of spoken word, excerpts or text from the Inferno itself, field recordings or any sonic tools or sound source you like.
- Submit your composition by Saturday 31st October (yes, Hallowe’en is the deadline – and why not? 👹)
Your submission:
- Compositions must be supplied as a WAV file, no more than 20 minutes long (there is no minimum length) – with your name and the number of your piece of the Inferno in the filename.
- We’ll need a title for your piece, and a description to go along with, detailing how that part of the Inferno inspired your composition, how you went about producing it, and/or what the audience should be listening out for.
- Compositions should be submitted at this link.
- The deadline is Friday 31 October, and the project will launch in November 2020. Artists whose pieces meet the criteria above and are included will be notified in advance of the launch date.
Select your choices for an Inferno composition from the diagram below using the flag markers:
NB. A flag means the area is still available.
A star means that the area has been allocated and is no longer available for selection.
