(Austin, TX – March 4, 2010) Now in its fourth year, Plutopia will show once again why the Austin Chronicle called it the most exciting SXSWi party ever. Plutopia 2010 will present an exciting convergence of technology, DIY, music, art, and brainstorms. In addition to localvore food and beverage and general party ambience, performance and the arts will play a major role alongside exhibits and talks that present compelling innovative thinking to make this yet another unforgettable, stimulating, and fun SXSW after event.

Way beyond the run-of-the-mill “booze and schmooze” after-party mixer, Plutopia is an ever-evolving multimedia experiment of Austintatious proportions dedicated to a playful, yet masterful cross-pollination across verticals to bring you an immersive interactive experience event.

This year’s Plutopian theme explores the role of technology, sound and digital media in changing the landscape and narrative of music in the information age.… everything from immersive listening and the expanding of audio boundaries and experimentation, to new forms of instrumentation, sampling and remixing and emerging creative processes; and from integrated multisensory systems and interfaces with intelligent networks, to transformations of aesthetics and the changing rhythm of nature.

With that theme in mind, Plutopia has amassed a master class of performers from across the globe, led by the electronic and experimental hip hop musician, turntablist, producer, author and postmodern intellectual, DJ Spooky, who will be joined by a string section to perform the premiere of a piece based on his collaboration with Brian Greene, author of “Elegant Universe”.

There’s also rich ambience around the Plutopia Universe, in the Zocalo of the Mexican American Cultural Center, such as Professor Conrad and THE GIANT BRAIN, along with its satellite, the Multi-dimensional Jalapeno Space Probe. The Giant Brain includes The Questionator, a faux theremin, sound activated sensors, IR triggered sound effects, dazzling LED and strobe light effects, complete sound system, solar battery charging, ipod music connection, wireless microphone, karaoke available, and much more, The Space Probe will be loaded with hacked musical toy parts linked to THE GIANT BRAIN. The whole thing will roam through the crowd with the help of Il Gruppo Technologico Paradiso, a group of renegade unofficial Robot Group members, actors and musicians.

Austin’s Toy Joy will also be on hand, allowing attendees to see the event through anaglyph 3D (if not rose-colored) glasses, and bringing along a set of not-quite-animals for your bouncing entertainment.

And there’ll be LED light shows, robots, holograms, widgets, bicycle madness, and intense locavore experiences (see below).

Welcome from the Plutopians at 7:30pm:

• Derek Woodgate, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer
• Jon Lebkowsky, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
• Maggie Duval, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Producer
• Bon Davis, Chief Technical Officer and Technical Producer

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Bruce Sterling 8:00pm –  <http://plutopia.org/headliners/#bruce>

Xiao He – 8:05pm – 8:35pm – <http://plutopia.org/headliners/#xiaohe>

DJ Spooky  - 9:00pm-10:00pm –  <http://plutopia.org/headliners#spooky>

Black Pig Liberation Front  - 10:15pm – 11:00pm –  <http://plutopia.org/headliners/#bplf>

White –  - 11:15pm – 11:45pm-  <http://plutopia.org/headliners/#white>

Dr. Strangevibe  - interstitial throughout-  <http://plutopia.org/headliners/#drstrangevibe>

Also featuring the Edible Austin Foodie Fest and Tipsy Texan Cocktail Bar! Unique to this and only this event, Edible Austin magazine is bringing the heart and soul of Austin’s local foodie scene and cutting edge mixology to Plutopia and will be hosting out-of-town guests from  Eat Well Guide <http://www.eatwellguide.org> . Full list of food and drink participants here <http://plutopia.org/headliners/edible-austin-foodie-fest/>

Sponsors include: Bazaarvoice <http://www.bazaarvoice.com>, PGi – Where the World Collaborates <http://www.pgi.com/>, Tipsy Texan <http://www.tipsytexan.com>, SXSW Interactive <http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/>, Toy Joy <http://www.toyjoy.com>, BoingBoing <http://www.boingboing.net>, Clarity  Ventures <http://www.clarity-ventures.com/>, Interactive Entertainment Systems <http://www.interactiveesystems.com>, The Futures Lab <http://www.futures-lab.com>.

Friends of Plutopia: Blastro <http://www.blastro.com> and Diversity Interactive Worldwide <http://www.diversityinteractive.net> .

Kusek and Leonhard foresee the disappearance of CDs and record stores as we know them in the next decade; consumers will have access to more products than ever, though, through a vast range of digital radio channels, person-to-person Internet file sharing and a host of subscription services. The authors are especially good at describing how the way current record companies operate – as both owners and distributors of music, with artists making less than executives – will also drastically change: individual CD sales, for example, will be replaced by “a very potent ‘liquid’ pricing system that incorporates subscriptions, bundles of various media types, multi-access deals, and added-value services.”

Relevant and retro: you can download a pdf of the complete book The science of music: or, The Physical basis of musical harmony by Sedley Taylor from Google Books.

The passage through the air of sounds of very great intensity is accompanied by effects which prove the atmosphere to be in a state of violent commotion. The explosion of a powder magazine is capable of shattering the windows of houses at several miles distance. Sounds of moderate loudness such as the rattle of carriage wheels the stamping of feet the clapping of hands are produced by movements of solid bodies which cannot take place without setting up a very perceptible agitation of the air. In the case of weaker sounds the accompanying air motion cannot, it is true, be ordinarily thus recognized, but even here a little attention will usually detect a certain amount of movement on the part of the sound producing apparatus which is probably capable of being communicated to the surrounding air.

Music is energy.

A very slight increase or diminution of loudness on the part of a single constituent tone is enough to produce a sensible change of quality in the clang. We should be still far below the mark if we allowed each partial tone four different degrees of intensity, though even this supposition would bring us more than eight thousand separate cases. Since many more variations of intensity are practically efficacious and also since the number of disposable partial tones need by no means be limited as has here been done to the first six, the above calculation will probably suffice to convince the reader that the varieties of quality which the theory we are engaged upon is capable of accounting for are almost indefinitely numerous.

“I do not play no rock and roll, y’all. I just play straight `A’ natchel blue.” – Mississipi Fred McDowell.

“Consider the following mosaic: Possible performances. Impossible narratives. Ruptured flow. Binary Dissonance. Questions of omission. The voice divorced from the body that gave it life, the face ruptured and ripped from the skull. Electro-modernity: a spacio-dynamic, disembodied, simultaneous, play of death. Morphing. Identity in continuous upheaval, in the multiplying mirror of memory. Reproduction. Replication: Asymmetric. Telekinetic. Dialectic. Flow. The body as a site of textual malleability. The mind as a locale of total recall. Total displacement. Who’s there? Erogenous, decoded amnesia. Biopsychic paradoxes. Eclipse of the self. Prosthetic. Synthetic. Memetic. Technophilia…” – DJ Spooky (aka Paul Miller)