chicago laboratory for electro-acoustic theater

ABOUT CLEAT

The Chicago Laboratory for Electro-Acoustic Theater (CLEAT) is a community resource for multi-channel audio exploration. Artists making music, performance works, and/or sound-based installation art are encouraged to work with our 16-channel system of Hemisphere speakers, installed at Elastic Arts in Chicago. We curate a monthly concert series, as well as the annual Curious EATS festival of multi-channel audio works. CLEAT was founded in 2019 and is co-directed by Sam Clapp, Stephan Moore, and Matt Test.

ABOUT THOSE SPEAKERS

CLEAT's unique speakers are built by Isobel Audio. Their omnidirectional sound projection makes their behavior different from most other loudspeakers, and the layout of the speaker system (a 4 x 4 grid) is different from "surround" systems, in that sound can be positioned throughout a room and the conventional "sweet spot" at the center of the room is eliminated. (There is more information on the history of the Hemisphere speaker at the Isobel Audio website.)

ABOUT ELASTIC ARTS

CLEAT is proud to call Elastic Arts our home, and our partner in supporting, developing, and presenting new & experimental audio work. Elastic Arts has been a major presenter of new music & art in Chicago since 2002. Read more about their mission and history here.

OTHER IMPORTANT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The iconic CLEAT logo that graces our webpage and our (free) stickers was designed by Federico Peñalva.