In addition to the Hurricane Katrina benefit at the War Room, tonight brings another notable event: A new musical competition by Iron Composer creators and Stranger Genius award-winners Seattle School.

The new competitioncalled the Pop Smear Testis described as “a Human Body/Laptop Audio melee and competition,” and is the featured attraction of tonight’s Visual Art Gala Opening party at Bumbershoot.

As with most things undertaken by Seattle School, the Pop Smear Test is hilariously intricate:

The POP SMEAR TEST takes the typical laptop battle and infuses it with blood, bone, sweat, nerves and tears - literally. Each laptop composer will draw a title from a list of the following 6 Sound Design Portraits: MONORAIL, GERIATRIC JUSTICES, TOM CRUISE, VIRGINITY LOSS, GARLIC FRIES, or TRIPLE BYPASS HEART SURGERY. The two composers will then compete to create laptop audio tracks reflecting their given  Design Portrait Title, with one major limitation: all audio used in their track must be comprised solely of audio collected from the audience that evening.  No soft synths or drum modules are allowed.

Assisting the composers in their audio collection will be two Field Audio Collectors, who will be in the audience with wireless mics. If a Composer needs a kick drum, the Audio Collector must get an audience member to perform the part, record it, and send it to the Composer's laptop. Shouts? Melody lines? Gunshots? Boiling oil? Knife incisions? Any audio the Composer desires must be performed by an audience member or a group of the audience, caught in the Audio Collector¹s mic, and captured onto the Composer's laptop to then be processed.

The final tracks will be judged by the audience as well, but with a complete disregaurd for their personal opinion. THE POP SMEAR TEST is instead judged by the reptilian-involuntary body responses the audience. Two Registered Nurses will be present to take the vital statistics of the audience while they are hearing the final audio tracks. Whichever track elicits the most amount of excitement from the audience - gauged  by winning the highest marks in at least two of the three categories of Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, and Body Temperature - will be judged the winner.  Regardless of the conscious brain's opinion, the reptilian brain tells the real tale.

Tonight's debut battle pits Composer DJ Nordic Soul and Audio Collector Jesse Paul Miller against Composer Corey Paganucci of KUMA and Audio Collector Rob Mills of Climax Golden Twins. The shit goes down at 8pm in the NW Courtyard of Seattle Center, and it is free. (Plus, there's a beer garden for those 21 and up...)