This piece is a structured improvisation that explores multi-channel feedback delays on the network. The delay path between Stanford (California, USA) and SARC (Belfast, Ireland) is used as a variable feedback comb filter for each of the four channels. The rhythmic meter of the piece follows this delay path as a way of synchronization / a-synchronization between the two performers. Echoes move on a space embedded on the network path. A custom visualization tool shows the activity of the musicians on each location and also cues the different parts of the piece. We use Jacktrip, ChucK, Processing and The Network.

Net vs. Net is a collective of musicians exploring the potential of high-speed networks as a real-time performance medium. Founded by Juan-Pablo Cáceres and Alain Renaud, it takes its inspiration from the comic strip “Spy vs. Spy” as a metaphor of the “delay battle” that happens on the network between two or more geographically displaced musicians.

Juan-Pablo Cáceres is a composer, performer and engineer born in Santiago, Chile. He is currently a PhD student in computer music at Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in Stanford University (USA). His work includes instrumental and electronic pieces, as well as performance of avantgarde rock and pop music, with a albums edited in Europe and America. Juan-Pablo’s interests include Network music and performance (he is an active member of the SOUNDWire project), popular experimental music, boundary pushing computer music (in both directions).

Alain B. Renaud is originally from Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to embarking on PhD research in network music performance at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Belfast in 2005, he was head of research for the London-based digital strategy consultancy, Rightscom from 2001 to 2005. While working in London he gained a MSc. in Music Information Technology from City University (2002-2004) under the supervision of Simon Emmerson. His research, which is sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) focuses on the development of networked music performance systems and the impact such systems have on the various music communities. Alain has published several papers on the subject and has organized many events with the aim to introduce networked music performance to the research community as well as the general public.

Janicki will discuss, among other works, Ping Melody, a music-net-performance. Temporary and unique state of all actions of Internet users has an influence on form of music composition. Musician (instrumentalist or singer) is playing on acoustic instrument/singing and sounds coming from instrument/voice are shared in packets of data information (granulated), then transmitted to selected Internet locations (as “ping” unix command).

The order of packet’s return, packet’s delays, transmission errors alerts are incorporated, and the information coming from these actions is controlling in the real time the transformation of played sound. Performance will be accompanying by visualisation, showing tracks of data and information of errors, etc. Dedicated software is a kind of sampler (granular synthesizer) and pitch tracker, which is using Internet to transform and create sound construction. Musician is improvising, treating software, which is transforming sound coming from his instrument, as a partner – a kind of second musician. More >>

ETERNAL MUSIC, by Chris Brown: Up to four players at a time can change the harmony and motion of 8 modulated sine-wave oscillators, producing a richly vibrating drone. APERTURE, by John Bischoff, invites sonic exploration and play using a palette of textured noise. By executing mouse-based motions, players can shape large and small changes in the sonic fabric.

CHRIS BROWN creates music for acoustic instruments with interactive electronics, for computer networks, and for improvising ensembles. Recordings of his music are available of Sonore, Tzadik, Centaur, and Artifact Recordings. He has received commissions from the Berkeley Symphony, the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio, and the Gerbode Foundation. He teaches electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, where he is Co-Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM).

JOHN BISCHOFF is a composer who has created live electronic music for solo performer and in computer network bands since 1978. He was a founding member of two premiere network bands, The League of Automatic Music Composers and the Hub, and co-authored an article on the League’s music that appears in “Foundations of Computer Music”, MIT Press (1985). Recordings of his music are available on Lovely Music, Frog Peak, Centaur, and Artifact Recordings, and will appear soon on an upcoming solo release on 23five.

Indigenous to the Net: Early Network Music Bands in the San Francisco Bay Area - by John Bischoff and Chris Brown :: This article documents the work of two bands that were active in the San Francisco Bay Area between the mid-1970s and late 1990s. The League of Automatic Music Composers and The Hub were two of the first ensembles to investigate the unique potentials of computer networks as a medium for musical composition and performance. Both groups came about as associations of computer music composers who were also designers and builders of their own hardware and software instruments. Their approach to the computer music medium was strongly do-it-yourself, a characteristic common both to the electronic technology community of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the experimental instrument-building tradition of Harry Partch, John Cage, and David Tudor. They approached the computer network as a large, interactive musical instrument in which the data-flow architecture linked independently programmed automatic music machines, producing a music that was noisy, surprising, often unpredictable, and was definitely more than the sum of its parts.

Co-written by two members of the Hub, this article provides an audio/visual tour of the music, instruments, and networking designs produced by these bands. In assembling together the sounds, still images, video, programs, and diagrams that are the artifacts of twenty-odd years of creative work, we are struck by the ways in which both the recording and performance technologies represented reflect the character of their times. But we also hope to point out how many of the issues that were confronted by these bands are still relevant today to composers working on ways to make the internet a medium for live, interactive musical performance. This article will be followed in August 2002 on this same Crossfade site by the premiere of two new online network music pieces, one by each of us, pointing in that direction.

About CROSSFADE: CROSSFADE focuses on sound as artistic medium. The purpose of this ongoing project is to contextualize and facilitate access to a diversity of sonic and musical directions, which utilize network technology as an integral part of their production. A curated space, CROSSFADE spans different aesthetic points of departure and integrates visual works with sonic constituents. New approaches towards the specific properties and artistic potential of networks as time-based technology will be at the heart of CROSSFADE, which aims at becoming a meeting-point for artists as well as audiences whose paths rarely cross, be it locally or globally, aestethically or sociologically.

The core of CROSSFADE consists of commissioned “media essays.” These may take any form presentable in the WWW, ranging from text-based with hyperlinks, to designed interfaces. Artistic projects that explore the notion of network as instrument are also featured on this site. In addition, CROSSFADE will also present live events both in physical space and online: local or global networks may be used both as productive tools or as distributive channels. In the former case, artists utilize a network as part of their performance. In the latter the global audience can tune in remotely to be part of the local audience.

CROSSFADE is a joint project of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Goethe-Institut, ZKM (Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe) and the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). It is funded in part by the James Family Foundation.

“The Simultaneous Translator” (SimTrans) is a Windows based audio interface that enables anyone to load audio streams and manipulate them in real time on the Internet. SimTrans makes the delays and fluctuations of the Internet visible and audible. The Internet becomes your collaborator as you create your mix, and the instability you usually try to avoid becomes a tool for creation. Distance and delay are manifest within the interface numerically and as a series of sliding heads; there is also a link to Google Earth where you can watch the dynamic flight of data travel between yourself and the audio source.

“SimTrans” is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Murray G. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust.

THE PERFORMANCE: “The Simultaneous Translator” grew out of the artists’ live networked performance project “Simultaneous Translation,” in which the delays of the internet are used to dynamically effect the live performances of geographically distant artists.

The upcoming performance will take place from 12:00 PM EST to 3:00 PM EST on Sunday April 15. Log on via http://turbulence.org/Works/simtrans.

Participants: Greg Davis (USA), Kenneth Goldsmith (USA), John Hudak (USA), Keyman (France), Lawrence Li (China), Mice69 (France), Miguel Ramos (Spain), Joe Reinsel (USA), John Roach (USA) and Willy Whip (France).

BIOGRAPHIES

JOHN ROACH doesn’t consider himself an installation artist, a sound artist, or a sculptor, but prefers to think of himself as a nomad, touching down in whatever place is most hospitable to his ideas. Recent projects have been an installation at the 2B Gallery in Budapest, Hungary; a collaborative performance with objects and video at the Saint Stephen Museum in Szekesfehervar, Hungary; and a web video project called Sweet Music. He continues to work with Willy Whip on their long-standing live networked performance project Simultaneous Translation.

WILLY WHIP is a designer and teacher in hypermedia interactivity. Outside his institutional work he likes to produce mashups that fertilize his own secret garden. This personal research and development leads him on a quest for hybrids: connect this information to that information; grow new contents; release new senses. Recent activity includes projects with the artists Anika Mignotte, Reynald Drouhin, and Du Zhenjun.

Geo-tagged musical graffiti

Chia Ying Lee’s Sonic Graffiti invites urban artists to collaborate and create music together, while allowing the passersby to enjoy it as well. A system of devices enables graffiti artists to create and geo-tag music in the urban space with real spray cans:

- The sound cap has to be snapped on the top of spray cans to spray out sounds and do simple sound manipulations with gestures. Users create music by overlaying/remixing various paint/sounds from the caps. Each cap can store up to 4 sounds in its memory card. They can be loaded from computers or portable devices like iPod, mobile phone, etc. Gestures to manipulate sound include fade in/out and scratch. Several artists spraying at the same time can create a sound composition.

- The controller is used for listening to the music with earphones when creating, and positioning sounds. It also comes with a recording part can be used for collecting sound samples from the city.

- The Boom box provides a shared listening experience for a group of creators in the public. Collaborations can be achieved both synchronously and asynchronously.

- Audiences can download a dedicated software player to install in mobile devices. Each graffiti is a small radio station. The player tunes into the music of the nearest sonic graffiti automatically while you go through the city. You can also mark the locations of music you like, hence make a personal sonic graffiti map.

This project gives graffiti audio meanings. It may change people�s viewpoint about graffiti. The music can also serve as the soundtrack reflecting the vibes of the city.

More details on Chia-Ying Lee’s thesis blog. My images of her installation.

Related: spatial graffiti, Wearable inkjet printer for street art, Audio messages left in space, Graffiti Analysis projections, Hektor the graffiti machine, emergency spray can, Bench’Mark. [blogged by R�gine on we-make-money-not-art]

Simultaneous Translation

John Roach is working on a multilocation networked audio performance called Simultaneous Translation which will involve players from USA, Spain, France, Italy and Germany. The first performance is slated for November 2004 in Madrid Spain. Other manifestations are planned for NYC and Trondheim Norway.

“In my first foray into networked performance entitled Negative Space it was the limitations of the streaming media which made the project difficult and exciting. This lag and flux is the starting point of Simultaneous Translation in which the idea of flux and slippage is put in the forefront and is compared to the slippages and mutations of language as it evolves. Another point of comparison is to the delays that occur on the web as data passes from router hop to router hop. In fact traceroute data will be used to manipulate audio streams from the remote participants, making the delay of the internet itself an active player in the project.”