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Abstract
The author discusses how sound was used in early Turbulence Internet works (1996–1998) and musical collaborations distributed between multiple physical performance venues (1998–1999). Focusing on the open composition, the article addresses the challenges of Internet-based musical interaction, including asynchronous time, lag and technical glitches. The latter part of the article focuses on the advent of mobile devices and wireless networks and the migration of computing out of the desktop computer into the physical world, and the resulting changes in musical experience. As composers and non-composers encourage active ‘audience’ participation in the realization of the work, the accepted nature of performance is called into question and a shifting relationship between the artist (composer), artwork (composition) and audience is introduced.
Notes
[1] According to a recent communication from Scott Gresham-Lancaster, one of the founding members of The Hub, they are beginning to work again and will give their first performance in the Tesla concert series at the Podewil in Berlin in June 2005.
[2] Turbulence has commissioned and exhibited Internet art since its founding in 1996 (see http://turbulence.org).
[3] Pops and crackles indicated that not all the material has arrived and that the Player, using a complex buffering system, was reconstructing the audio from the data it had.
[4] In computing, a ‘buffer’ is a portion of memory set aside to store data; in this case, data is stored in the buffer before it is sent to an external device such as the RealPlayer. This allows timing corrections to be made on the incoming data stream.
[5] RealAudio was originally transmitted using the UDP protocol. Unlike TCP, UDP does not do error correction (i.e., it does not ensure that the files that are received are the same as those on the server and that all the bytes of the file are present). At the time, it was ideal for data streaming because it did not take the time required for error correction.
[6] Neilson's work is no longer available for the reasons mentioned in the text, but a part of it may be seen online at: http://turbulence.org/Works/radio_stare/radio_stare.swf.
[7] Interview with Peter Traub, available online at: www.fictive.org/%7Epeter/bits/thesis/chapter3.html#Anchor-John-35882.
[8] Radio_stare is no longer accessible due to the greediness of newer versions of the RealAudio players that grab the whole sound card, so that it will no longer play MIDI and RealAudio streams at the same time. In 1997, QuickTime MIDI files and RealAudio streams would play together with most sound cards.
[9] ‘It is also interesting,’ as Peter Traub writes in his MFA thesis, ‘to consider the network relationships that pervade this piece. The individual police officers each comprise a node attached to the central hub, which is the dispatcher. As they move about the area, they each report back their experiences and actions. Their sonic output is mixed in a collage of communication that each officer hears. That collage is then sent out over the Web through a scanner site, appropriated in a work of art, and sent back out over the Web to a new group of nodes, the audience. Radio Stare is successful because it uses the Web's communication potential in such a simple but profoundly thought provoking way. Through its use of the police scanners, it becomes a work about the communication network it utilizes.’
[11] E-mail interview conducted by Peter Traub for his thesis, available online at: http://www.fictive.org/%7Epeter/bits/thesis/appendixA.html#Anchor-Helen-6296.
[12] Many of the artists have gone on to do other distance projects, including Pauline Oliveros with Echos from the Moon. Multi-site performances are ongoing at Mills College, Oakland, California; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and elsewhere.
[13] A full description of this work can be found at: http://turbulence.org/Works/ftime/index.html.
[14] E-mail correspondence with John Roach, April 2005.
[15] A utility called ‘traceroute’ is available that probes the paths that data packets take through the Internet, recording all the ‘hops’ (routers) along the way (see http://www.traceroute.org).
[16] In ‘About the Piece’, available online at: http://www.jasonfreeman.net/PDF/scores/glimmer-score.pdf.
[17] ‘Swooping the Orchestra’, available online at: http://www.americancomposers.org/freeman_essay.htm.
[18] http://www.jasonfreeman.net/Catalog/electroni/nag.html. The work is available online at: http://www.turbulence.org/Works/freeman/.
[19] ‘The Architecture of Auracle: A Real-Time, Distributed, Collaborative Instrument’ and other articles on Auracle can be found online at: http://www.auracle.org/furtherreading.html.
[20] E-mail correspondence with Helen Thorington, 20 April 2005.
[21] The jacket was designed with sensors as ‘plug-and-play’ elements so people could isolate and easily reconfigure their own interaction and sonic variables. Electronic components were removable for easy software calibration.
[22] For a list of other performance wearables by this group, see http://home.snafu.de/maubrey/phonoma.html.
[23] http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/000533.html; http://www.finearts.uvic.ca/∼jolliffe/sdn/sdn.htm.
[24] Polli has also created a system using the Lorenz attractor as a structure to guide human/computer musical improvisation (1992), as well as a long-running performance project, Intuitive Ocusonics (1996-ongoing): a system for performing sound using eye movements.
[25] http://www.cloudharp.org/. The Harp is also called the ‘Keplerian Harp’ after the German astronomer, who was one of the first to try and transpose natural phenomenon into music.
[26] http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/000533.html; http://www.finearts.uvic.ca/∼jolliffe/sdn/sdn.htm.