Given the current situation of the pandemic worldwide, the local organizing committee, in conjunction with officials from the ICMA and the hosting institution, have decided to convert the 2021 ICMC to an on-line only meeting. We are very aware of the difficulties that this decision especially produces in terms of music presentation and installations, but we strongly believe that this is the only option we have at this point. Even with the beginning of COVID-19 vaccinations, social distancing, masks and occupation limits will still be enforced for concerts and talks and there is no guarantee that in-person activities will be able to resume in a normal fashion by July.
While we are very sad that we won’t have the opportunity to meet and listen to each other in-person, we believe that this on-line format, something unparalleled in ICMC’s history, creates tremendous opportunities for the future. We will work very hard to ensure the best possible ICMC experience for all attendees, including innovative means of presenting music and installations. One example of the actions that we are taking is the special call for musical XR works on Mozilla Hubs.
We are also extending the present call for works (papers, music, installations, panels and workshops) until February 28th, 11:59 EST, in order to give authors the opportunity to accommodate their submissions to this new reality. For authors with already accepted works, we will reach out to each one of you to determine the best presentation format for each case.
We will communicate more specific details during the next weeks and months preparing ahead for our on-line meeting. Looking forward to meeting you in cyberspace,
The ICMC 2021 Team