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Displaced Soundscapes: A Survey of Network Systems for and Sonic Art Creation

Álvaro Barbosa ABSTRACT

The introduction of various collaborative tools, made possible by the expansion of computer network systems and ollaboration has long been a key element in perimeter: 40,009 km). Even with communications technology, has C led to new methods of musical music; therefore, the use of collaborative systems based on data transfer at the speed of light composition and improvisation. computer networks to achieve musical results were a natural (approximately 300,000 km per The author describes a number development. The advent of computer network music dates sec) and unlimited bandwidth, of recent music and sound art back to the late 1970s with early experimental performances bidirectional latency would reach projects involving the use of network systems that enable in California by the League of Automatic Music Composers approximately 133.4 msec, which is geographically displaced [1]. Up until the early 1990s, systems for musical collabora- much higher than the tolerable creators to collaboratively tion using computers were based on local networks. In the last threshold. With such numbers in generate shared soundscapes. decade, the massive worldwide growth of the Internet has in- mind, it is not surprising that net- Various system designs, ideas creased the possibilities for composers, performers and audi- work is an assumed part of and concepts associated with this interaction paradigm are ences. However, it is well known that the phenomenon of creating music on-line. presented and classified by the network delay is a major drawback for real-time collaboration The thought that network delay author. over global networks. At the global level, physical limitations is particular to the medium and in current network technology introduce higher latency than that composers should embrace is acceptable for real-time acoustic collaboration. this fact when creating music is For the human ear to perceive two sounds as simultaneous, clearly expressed by experimental artist Atau Tanaka in an in- the sounds should not be displaced in time more than 20 msec terview with Golo Föllmer: [2], which means that for mutual awareness to be supported I find Internet time delay rather interesting and I think of it as in a bilateral performance, the maximum threshold would be a kind of unique acoustic of this media. . . . [R]ather than to around 40 msec (the time it would take a performer to per- play existing music on this new time basis, what is interesting to ceive a second performer’s reaction to his or her action). It me is trying to find a musical language that works on this time should be noted that the perception of two different sounds axis. ...[3] performed simultaneously is strongly dependent on sound This same idea motivated the SoundWIRE group at the Cen- characteristics (timbre, pitch and loudness), musical style and ter for Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford other types of feedback such as visual or physical stimuli. Nev- University to conduct significant research over the last few ertheless, a 20-msec threshold should be adequate. years to address the influence of network conditions in acoustic If we consider the smallest possible peer-to-peer connection communication [4,5]. between two opposite points on the planet, we have an ap- Latency has a highly variable and unpredictable nature, cre- proximate distance of 20,004.5 km (half the distance of earth’s ating time-based errors, de-sequencing and even partial loss of content, resulting in difficult conditions for performance Fig. 1. Screen shot of the FMOL software bamboo interface. With control. There are major efforts under way to improve the sit- this interface the user can manipulate and generate individual or uation by increasing bandwidth and data compression options. collaborative pieces. (© Sergi Jordà) Such improvements, along with restricting projects to Large Area Networks (LANs) or to Wide Area Networks (WANs) in geographically constrained territories (e.g. a country or even a continent), may reduce network latency to levels that will not impede real-time acoustic communication over the Inter- net. Network latency tends to be central to the discussion of network-based activities, yet there are other important issues, such as who will perform with these systems and whether time- based musical events/performances are always appropriate.

REDEFINING THE ACOUSTIC COMMUNITY Designing and implementing a network music system supposes that new, meaningful sonic results can be achieved by collab-

Álvaro Barbosa (researcher), Group, Pompeu Fabra University, Passeig de Circumval•lació 8, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: [email protected].

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oration over computer networks. When belong. Realistically it should fit in the tutions such as universities and radio sta- first addressing this supposition, one Supra timescale, defined as a “timescale tions. The tradition should start by considering the target au- beyond that of an individual composition dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, when dience. In 1984 Barry Truax introduced and extending into months, years, de- it emerged as a discipline in college and the concept of the acoustic community cades, and centuries” [9], since the Infi- university music departments, based on in his book Acoustic Communication: nite timescale is an abstraction beyond the work of composers such as Pierre The “Acoustic Community” may be de- the time life of the present cultural and Schaeffer and . Al- fined as any soundscape in which technological state of development. though there is no comprehensive defi- acoustic information plays a pervasive Some recent artistic proposals ap- nition of sonic art, in the 1980s this field role in the lives of the inhabi- proach unlimited music events. In 2000 became a playground of diversified artis- tants. ...Therefore the boundary of the Antoine Schmitt created the Infinite CD tic proposals and experiments with elec- community is arbitrary and may be as small as a room of people, a home or a for Unlimited Music [10]. Once inserted tronic and digital music creation when building, or as large as an urban com- in a computer, this CD generates music computer technologies became more munity, a broadcast area or any other sys- infinitely, always different yet always sim- widely available to the ordinary music tem of electroacoustic communication ilar, with no images or form of interac- creator, and expanded in the 1990s with [6]. tion. Another approach to this idea the advent of Internet-based communi- Truax’s concept of the acoustic com- explores Internet technology and user cation. munity can be viewed from an on-line interaction: In 2003 pre- context. The notion of a soundscape fa- sented the Eternal Network Music proj- miliar to all users is inevitably tied to sonic ect, a flexible piece created on-line that EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH events transmitted and produced with allows up to four players at a time to MUSIC AND COMPUTER computers, suggesting that computer- change the harmony and motion of NETWORKS generated might be an eight modulated sine-wave oscillators to In the late 1970s the commercialization engaging format to address in the place produce a richly vibrating drone that of personal computers in the United of more traditional musical formats. continues endlessly [11]. States, which allowed the fine-tuning of However, traditional musical culture is network topologies, enabled the first at- somewhat strict regarding what consti- tempts by experimental musicians to cre- tutes a music event, and one of the major ETWORK YSTEMS FOR N S ate local computer networks. The first questions regarding collective music cre- MUSIC AND SONIC ARTS events using computer networks to cre- ation by indiscriminate Internet users is Given the subset of the musical universe ate collaborative music were performed whether this community is prepared to constrained to computer-network-based by the Oakland, California, group the express meaningful musical results. The music, it is useful to consider Guy E. Gar- League of Automatic Music Composers fact that Internet technology provides nett’s definition of music: [13]. The “League” came together permanent public access to music crea- through the mutual interests of central tion systems and listening paradigms The nature of music, particularly in the century of , multiculturalism, protagonists Jim Horton, John Bischoff raises additional questions regarding tra- and other varieties of aesthetic choice, and Rich Gold, who named their new ditional aspects of a musical piece, such becomes more problematic. Nonethe- genre of musical performance Network as its duration. An ongoing musical piece less, I think it is possible to reduce the . that is not constrained by time limits problem somewhat. Just as I have con- In 1985 the Network Muse, a network seems to be an appropriate form for sidered aesthetics in only its broadest manifestations, similarly, music can be music festival, was held in , using some of the emerging systems dis- roughly considered to be sounds made California, and featured a collective of cussed later in this article. with aesthetical intent, or even sound lis- electronic musicians such as John tened to with aesthetic interest. The for- mer gives more weight to the role of the Bischoff, Tim Perkis, Chris Brown, Mark TIME DIMENSIONS OF creator, while the latter formulation Trayle, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, Larry A PERMANENT EVENT tends to privilege the listener [12]. Polansky, Phil Stone and Phil Burk. From the context created around the activity In the book Microsounds, in- In this sense we can consider the sonic of these composers, the League evolved troduces a taxonomy of timescales from outcome of a collective Internet creation into a subsequent group in 1987, the a music theory perspective [7]. In this as a music event, since users commit Hub, which employed more accurate proposal, music timescales are, in de- themselves to create a sound piece col- communication schemes by using the creasing order, the Infinite timescale, the laboratively with aesthetic intent and si- MIDI protocol [14]. Supra timescale, the Macro timescale, the multaneously are audience members Meso timescale, the Sound Object interpreting the results with aesthetic in- timescale, the Micro timescale, the Sam- terest. LOCAL MUSICAL NETWORKS ple timescale, the Subsample timescale and Computer network music falls in part In 2002 Gil Weinberg introduced the the Infinitesimal timescale. within the larger category of sonic art, a concept of Interconnected Musical Net- Most music creations driven by an term that emerged in the 1960s and that works (IMNs) with an example from a event are in the Macro timescale, defined applies to a very broad spectrum of sce- performance at the MIT Media Lab in by Roads as “the timescale of overall narios in which acoustic phenomena are the spring of 1998: music architecture or form, measured in manipulated in different ways. Histori- minutes or hours, or in extreme cases, cally, sonic art came from the academic [T]wo musicians were playing a newly de- days” [8]. However, one might wonder tradition of electroacoustic music, as veloped multiplayer squeezable instru- ment. While controlling the pitch curve where an ongoing musical piece, per- until quite recently, advanced electron- of his own part, one of the players was manently available for use by hybrid com- ics and computer technology for audio also continuously manipulating the munities of creators and listeners, would were available only to members of insti- other player’s timbre. This manipulation

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led the second player to modify her play With the advent of recording and non- A different approach to reaching a gestures in response to the new timbre linear editing technologies, a new way to broad spectrum of users is to publish spe- she received from her peer....[A]n im- compose music emerged. The use of cific software tools via the Internet that mersive and interdependent network of subtle mutual influences emerged, lead- recording studios as compositional tools either are dependent on special-purpose ing the two performers to a unique play- has become increasingly common, espe- hardware or are proprietary experimen- ing experience, where unpredictability, cially in producing popular music. In a tal systems from companies or research dynamism, self-evolving musical behav- recording studio one or more musicians groups. In 1995, with support from Sun iours, and interdependent collaboration are at the core [15]. can record their instrumental perfor- Microsystems, the Institut de Recherche mances (synchronously or asynchro- et Coordination Acoustique/Musique The concept of a musical instrument nously), resulting in raw material recorded (IRCAM) started an on-line studio [22] designed to be played simultaneously by acoustically that can be manipulated to a based on client/server web technology. more than one person is not new, but great degree to create a complete musical This project aimed to provide access to there are very few examples in the his- piece. Due to its ease of use, this method some of IRCAM’s sound databases and tory of Western music, other than the is highly suitable for musicians and com- sophisticated sound-processing tools piano. With local high-speed computer posers who are not formally trained, since such as the Super Phase Vocoder (SVP). networks and sensor technology, a new it reduces the temporal gap between the This project has recently developed the universe of possibilities has been un- spark of an idea and witnessing the result, On-Line Sound Palette under the veiled in this field, providing a context and therefore provides the possibility to CUIDADO project framework [23]. A for new experiments such as the Jam-O- react to, transform and improvise a piece similar project was started in 1997 by World multi-player music controller, an more quickly and efficiently. Ramon Loureiro at the Audiovisual In- interactive drumming table that allows For Internet users interested in music, stitute of Pompeu Fabra University in groups of people with or without previ- a new class of Internet applications has Barcelona, Spain [24]. This system made ous musical knowledge to share audiovi- emerged that enables the idea of the on- it possible to have a web front end to sual experiences through its integration line recording studio. This concept has Xavier Serra’s Spectral Modelling Syn- of interactive music elements with real- been realized in the form of distributed thesis technique [25]. time video and computer graphics pro- systems coupled with centralized servers jections in a collaborative environment that manage multiple sessions and [16,17]. groups of users. In these systems the in- COLLECTIVE CREATION However, some single-user instruments terface resembles typical nonlinear multi- SYSTEMS that are not designed to be played si- track editing software and allows users to Composition can be approached through multaneously by several performers may lay down MIDI and tracks, a community perspective, since the In- instead be able to evoke several instances in either an asynchronous or synchro- ternet makes it possible to create systems of themselves, allowing different users to nous non–real-time mode, collaborating available to large communities of anony- play simultaneously. Furthermore, the with other users from the same session. mous users. In 1997 the Catalan theater idea of a multi-user instrument does not Well-known applications in this area are company La Fura dels Baus commis- necessarily require performance inter- the ResRocket Surfer [20] and Tonos sys- sioned experimental artist Sergi Jordà to dependency, as explained by Weinberg tems [21], which received support from develop an on-line collective music crea- above [18]. With IMNs, in order to music industry manufacturers. tion system. The system allows the par- achieve virtuosic results, it is critical to have a real-time network system, due Fig. 2. Screen shot of the FMOL web-based tree-structured database with multiple-generation to the interdependency required among pieces composed by different users. The users can upload their FMOL pieces to this server, performers. Therefore, this approach is making them available for other users to modify. (© Sergi Jordà) mostly constrained to local networks.

COMPOSITION SUPPORT SYSTEMS Two or more composers can utilize vari- ous techniques to compose together. Tra- ditionally, a composer conceives the music individually and registers his ideas in symbolic musical notation (a score). Cooperation with other composers in a co-authored piece requires the exchange of ideas among contributors by a bilat- eral analysis of each participants’ addi- tions to the score. An early system based on the idea of using Internet communi- cation to enhance traditional joint com- position appeared in the early 1990s with Craig R. Latta’s NetJam [19]. This system allowed a community of users to collab- orate in producing music in an asyn- chronous way by exchanging MIDI files through e-mail.

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ticipation of Internet users in the crea- distinctive was the audience’s reception REMOTE COLLABORATIVE tion of musical pieces that were included of an uninterrupted transmission of PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS later in the play F@ust 3.0, freely inspired multichannel audio over a custom system A more complex scenario than unilateral by Goethe’s work. The original system fol- employing both Transmission Control participation (telepresence) is bilateral lowed a client/server model, allowing Protocols (TCP) and User Datagram Pro- collaboration between two simultaneous composers, using the Faust Music On- tocols (UDP), providing its own buffer- events. In a 1998 interview with the Sen- Line (FMOL) software, to log into a cen- ing and retransmission algorithms. sorband ensemble, Zbigniew Karkowski tral web-based server to download and Another project, developed in 1997 in refers to fundamental artistic issues upload pieces stored in a song tree- collaboration among the University of raised in collaborative performances structure database (Figs 1 and 2) [26]. Geneva, Switzerland; GRAME, Centre over the Internet: During the periods that this project was National De Création Musicale, in Lyon, on-line, January–March 1998 and France; and GMD, National Research Another artistic aspect of ISDN is the idea of control. Very often, com- September–October 2000, several hun- Center for Information Technology and posers use computers to achieve greater dred composers participated in the cre- the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, in Birling- control. We have found, after playing sev- ation of excerpts for musical scores for hoven, Germany, was based on the de- eral concerts like this, that we could two plays by La Fura and a collective CD. velopment of a telepresence system never control the output 100 percent. In 1996 a similar approach, but within (unilateral participation), with the goal Aspects like the delay become unknown variables, which is interesting. ...[33] a different context, was presented in Tod of creating an environment for distrib- Machover’s Brain Opera, which among uted rehearsals where the conductor of The Sensorband concerts were based other things was an attempt to combine an orchestra could be present remotely on synchronous collaboration using a a staged installation and on-line interac- [30]. To give participants the impression peer-to-peer model (with ISDN connec- tion [27]. For this project a series of hy- of the presence of the conductor in the tions) between two performers. Yet other perinstruments were created for use at a room and of his awareness of the musi- experimental systems have focused on physical installation site and through cians’ gestures, eye contact and bodily synchronous performances, as close as interactive sound applications available expressions, the project required special- possible to real time, designed for multi- on-line. The results from the hyper- purpose technology with high-quality ple users. The 1998 TransMIDI system al- instrument performances at the installa- video and spatialized sound. lows performers (and listeners) to tion, along with results from on-line A different approach to performance perform together in multiple session users, converged in a final performance in a live public event is to create systems groups [34]. Players perform on MIDI onstage. based on low-cost public-domain tech- controllers, and various topologies are Another project based on the idea of nology. Different styles of music, instru- possible, including the formation of hy- collective music creation, but with a dif- ments and technical setups have been brid groups with one or more leaders. ferent approach for a live event, was Wil- tried, such as the telemusic and piano Another relevant project following this liam Duckworth’s 1997 Cathedral [28]. master classes of John Young and Randall approach is Phil Burk’s TransJam, which This project was one of the first interac- Packer and New York University’s Cas- also allows synchronous peer-to-peer in- tive music works created specifically for sandra Project [31,32]. teraction between several users but goes the World Wide Web. Live events con- veying pieces created by users in this en- vironment were broadcast on-line. Fig. 3. The Public Sound Objects system architecture. Several remote clients can simultane- ously manipulate sound objects from the central server. The connection from the clients to the server is based on discrete commands issued by the users, and that from the server to the clients is based on a digital audio stream that conveys the performance of all on-line users. TELEPRESENCE SYSTEMS (© Álvaro Barbosa) The idea of presenting performances that include one or more performers at remote sites located anywhere in the world, participating in events taking place in front of live audiences during fixed periods of time, is an exciting one. Logistical considerations must be made for events occurring simultaneously in different time zones, but the main con- cern in such a setting is usually network latency. One approach to this problem is the use of communications technologies such as high-speed and broadband net- works combined with streaming tech- niques. A unique public event that occurred on 26 September 1999 illustrates this ap- proach. A musical performance at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, was transmitted to an audience at New York University over the Internet during the 107th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention [29]. What made this event

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beyond the MIDI format by supporting ables what can be termed shared sonic en- require a continuous real-time input low-fidelity digital audio [35]. A different vironments. In such openly shared spaces stream. Rather, it is based on a commu- approach to this concept based on a members of the on-line community can nication model that enables triggering of mixed environment of an interactive mu- participate in a public event by manipu- sounds on the server side in response to seum installation and synchronous multi- lating or transforming sounds and musi- discrete events on the client side, pro- user Internet-based collaboration is the cal or by simply listening to viding faster communication from the Worldbeat/GlobeMusic project currently music created collectively. client to the server, based on the trans- hosted by the Ars Electronica Center in One of the first examples of such sys- mission of small text messages. Linz, Austria [36]. The creators of this tems is the WebDrum, a drum box that project are developing ways for off- can be shared by several people over the LASSIFICATION OF line/on-line interaction with other mu- Internet, based on Phil Burk’s Audio C sicians. Software Synthesis API for Java JSyn and COMPUTER-SUPPORTED An additional experiment that reflects the TransJam Architecture [38]. Another COLLABORATIVE MUSIC the potential of multi-user remote per- recent artistic proposal following this ap- The systems I have presented in this ar- formance over the Internet took place proach is Atau Tanaka’s MP3Q piece, ticle each have different sonic commu- during the 2001 Networkshop festival in classified by the author as a shared on- nication requirements; therefore, I have Dresden, Germany, when several collab- line sound space that streams multiple categorized them into different classes: orative on-line concerts based on Sergi channels of MP3 audio from different • Local Interconnected Musical Net- Jordà’s FMOL Virtual Music Instrument servers [39]. Users can concurrently ma- works—used in organized events for were presented between Dresden and nipulate these MP3 sources by using a 3D groups of performers who interact in Barcelona [37]. Even though latency was cube to actuate a graphic representation real time with a set of musical in- in the range of 100 ms with 56-kb modem of the system’s current behavior. struments (or virtual musical instru- connections, the performers conveyed a Public Sound Objects is a system de- ments) with sonic interdependency strong sense of control and playability. signed from scratch as a shared sonic provided by a local computer net- The sound-sequencing technique used space by the Music Technology Group at work. in this system, based on low-frequency os- Pompeu Fabra University [40]. In this • Musical Composition Support Sys- cillators that excite sound generators, project the concept of a shared space is tems—used to assist more traditional created rhythmic and melodic progres- explored simultaneously by community- forms of musical composition and sions that supported flexible reaction driven sonic creation and an onsite au- production, both for composition times and short periods of asynchronic- diovisual installation, bringing together based on written music supports and ity, motivated by network latency, from a physical space and a virtual presence music production based on experi- the performing partners. on the Internet. Public Sound Objects mental processes in recording stu- are based on classic client/server archi- dios. Musical Composition Support tecture. The server handles the actual Systems enhance the traditional col- N INE MPROVISATION O -L I sound-synthesis computation, and the in- laboration paradigms by allowing AND SHARED SONIC teraction interface is implemented on geographical displacement and asyn- ENVIRONMENTS the client side. One of the main charac- chronous collaboration. Even though set-up requirements for teristics of this implementation is its mod- • Remote Music Performance Sys- nonimprovisational performance and for ularity (Fig. 3). It is important to note tems—used in organized events for pure improvisation (i.e. “jam” sessions) that the user to synthesis server does not groups of multiple remote perform- are physically the same, there are major conceptual differences between these two approaches. In the context presented Fig. 4. A classification space for computer-supported collaborative music. In this diagram one in this article, nonimprovisational per- can compare the different categories of a network music system in terms of the user’s loca- formance means the process of playing a tion and performance synchronicity. (© Álvaro Barbosa) sequence of music events (a score) while providing some sort of synchronism with other music or visual events. In a perfor- mance there is space left for individual expression and for improvisation, but in musical terms the event should be driven to a certain extent by a predetermined and rehearsed composition. With pure improvisation, musicians are not en- gaged in such a systematic approach, leaving more space available for spon- taneity, free expression and continuous development of elaborated interactive re- lationships between the participants. Since no musical knowledge or in- strumental performance requirements can be demanded from an Internet user, a spontaneous improvisational approach is quite suitable; for such an approach an emergent new class of applications en-

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ers/users, displaced in space, impro- One may infer from this study that 3. G. Föllmer, Crossfade—Sound Travels on the Web— vising and interacting synchronously most of the projects approaching geo- Soft Music, a joint project of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; ZKM— with a set of musical instruments graphical displacement over the Internet Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany; (or virtual musical instruments). In are oriented towards: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Goethe this case sonic interdependency is Forum, , Germany; 2001. See http:// 1. The creation of networks where doc- crossfade.walkerart.org/. affected by network latency. Tele- uments in digital audio or logical for- presence (remote unilateral partici- 4. C. Chafe, S. Wilson, R. Leistikow, D. Chisholm and mats can be exchanged among G. Scavone, “Simplified Approach to High Quality pation) is a particular case of this set geographically displaced contribu- Music and Sound over IP,” in Proceedings of the Digi- of applications. tal Audio Effects (DAFX) Conference (COSTG6 Euro- tors, in project-oriented collabora- pean Cooperation in the field of Scientific and • Shared Sonic Environments—a new tion paradigms such as in a typical Technical Research Framework, 2000) pp. 159–164. class of emerging applications that computer-supported cooperative 5. C. Chafe and R. Leistikow, “Levels of Temporal explores the Internet’s distributed work application Resolution in Sonification of Network Performance,” and shared nature. They are not ori- in Proceedings of the International Conference on Audi- 2. Providing a channel to allow tele- ented towards time-limited event tory Display (Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki Univ. of Tech- presence between performative nology, 2001), pp. 50–55. scenarios, and their use is more suit- spaces and therefore enhancing the able for synchronous improvisation. 6. B. Truax, Acoustic Communication (Norwood, NJ: efficiency of traditional collaborative Ablex, 1984). Since these systems are addressed to paradigms for musical perfor- broad audiences, previous musical 7. C. Roads, Microsounds (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, mance/composition, musical educa- 2001). knowledge from the participants usu- tion or even for music sharing, by ally is not required, and therefore re- 8. Roads [7] pp. 2–3. adding long-distance collaboration sults often are experimental sonic 9. Roads [7] p. 3. possibilities pieces. 3. The creation of community-oriented 10. A. Schmitt and V. Epplay, Infinite CD for Unlimited Based on these categorizations, a clas- Music (2000). See http://www.infiniteCD.org/. shared virtual environments, where sification space can be defined taking users dynamically join and leave, 11. C. Brown and J. Bischoff, Eternal Network Music into account the environmental facets: (2003) http://crossfade.walkerart.org/brown supporting collaborative ongoing synchronous and asynchronous for the bischoff2/eternal/. sonic performance based on the sim- time dimension; remote and co-located 12. G. Garnett, “The Aesthetics of Interactive Com- ple manipulation of sound objects in for the space dimension (Fig. 4). This cat- puter Music,” Computer Music Journal 25, No. 1, 21–33 a soundscape or on the creation of (2001). egorization of sonic art systems is in- musical structures. This approach spired by Tom Rodden’s proposal for a 13. Bischoff, Gold and Horton [1]. goes beyond the enhancements of ex- classification space, introduced in 1997 14. S. Gresham-Lancaster, “The Aesthetics and His- isting acoustic communication para- for Computer-Supported Cooperative tory of the Hub: The Effects of Changing Technol- digms, focusing on diverse Internet ogy on Network Computer Music,” Leonardo Music Work (CSCW) [41], a field in computer collaboration. Journal 8 (1998) pp. 39–44. science that represents a major focus area 15. G. Weinberg, “Interconnected Musical Networks: of the Special Interest Group on Group- Just as similar paradigms oriented to- Bringing Expression and Thoughtfulness to Collab- ware (SIGGROUP), of the educational wards visual or textual communication orative Music Making,” thesis proposal, MIT Media Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, 2002 http://web. and scientific computing society the As- (Multi User Dungeons [MUDs], Object media.mit.edu/~gili/publications/Phd_proposal% sociation for Computing Machinery Oriented MUDs [MOOs], Internet Relay 20-%20IMN%20Final.pdf. (ACM). Chats [IRC], Active Worlds, etc.) tend to 16. T. Blaine and C. Forlines, “JAM-O-WORLD: Evo- It should be noted that these are by no lead to new mechanisms of interaction lution of the Jam-O-Drum Multi-Player Musical Con- means closed categories, and many of the not usually seen in “real life” [42], a sim- troller into Jam-O-Whirl Gaming Interface,” in Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression applications belong to more than one ilar result can be expected in paradigms (NIME) (2002) pp. 17–22. class. For instance, the FMOL system de- oriented towards music or sonic art, sug- 17. The JAM-O-WORLD web site http://www.etc. scribed earlier represents an extreme gesting that the sonic outcome of such cmu.edu/projects/jamoworld/ example of an application with charac- systems could express interesting new 18. Weinberg [15]. teristics from various categories. It can be artistic results. It is clear that this area of used locally in an interconnected music sonic creation is quite promising, not 19. C. Latta, “Notes from the NetJam Project,” Leonardo Music Journal 1 (1991) pp. 103–105. network; it is a multi-user instrument; it only from the fact that it allows the en- can be used in remote music perfor- hancement of known paradigms to make 20. M. Moller, W. Henshall, T. Bran and C. Becker, The ResRocket Surfer—Rocket Network (1994) http:// mance over the Internet; it supports on- music, but also because it provides a con- www.rocketnetwork.com/. line asynchronous collective composition text for stylistic novelty. 21. For more information about Tonos, see in a sort of centralized studio paradigm. http://www.tonos.com. Acknowledgments 22. R. Wöhrmann and G. Ballet, “Design and Archi- I would like to thank Xavier Serra, Sergi Jordà, Per- tecture of Distributed Sound Processing Systems for CONCLUSIONS fecto Herrera and Martin Kaltenbrunner for their Web-Based Computer Music Applications,” Computer support and contribution to this study. This work was Music Journal 23, No. 3, 73–84 (2002). This study is not exhaustive, and owing supported by the Portuguese institution Fundação to the experimental nature of this field para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science 23. H. Vinet, P. Herrera and F. Pachet, “The we can assume that information about and Technology). CUIDADO Project,” in Proceedings of ISMIR 2002, 3rd many interesting and relevant projects International Conference on Music Information Retrieval References and Notes (, France: IRCAM, 2002). has not yet been published or made pub- lic. Nevertheless, I have attempted to pro- 1. J. Bischoff, R. Gold and J. Horton, “Music for an 24. R. Loureiro and X. Serra, “A Web Interface for Interactive Network of Microcomputers,” Computer a Sound Database and Processing System,” in Pro- vide here a variety of representative Music Journal 2, No. 3, 24–29 (1978). ceedings of the International Computer Music Conference projects to provide useful references and (ICMC, 1997) pp. 360–363. 2. I. Hirsh, “Auditory Perception of Temporal concepts for future work on network Order,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 31, 25. X. Serra, “Musical Sound Modelling with Sinu- music systems. No. 6, 759–767 (1959). soids plus Noise,” in G.D. Poli, A. Picialli, S.T. Pope

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and C. Roads, eds., Musical Signal Processing (the 34. D. Gang, V. Chockler, T. Anker, A. Kremer and 41. T. Rodden, “A Survey of CSCW Systems,” Inter- Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1997) part 1, T. Winkler, “TransMIDI: A System for MIDI Sessions acting with Computers 3, No. 3 (St. Louis, MO: But- chap. 3. Over the Network Using Transis,” in Proceedings of the terworth-Heinemann, 1991) pp. 319–353. International Computer Music Conference (ICMC, 1997) 26. S. Jordà, “Faust Music On Line (FMOL): An Ap- pp. 283–286. 42. P. Curtis, “Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text- proach to Real-Time Collective Composition on the Based Virtual Realities,” Proceedings of the 1992 Con- Internet,” Leonardo Music Journal 9 (1999) pp. 5–12. 35. P. Burk, “Jammin’ on the Web: A New ference on the Directions and Implications of Advanced Client/Server Architecture for Multi-User Musical Computing (Berkeley, CA: 1992) pp. 1–21. 27. R. Rowe, Machine Musicianship (Cambridge, MA: Performance,” in Proceedings of the International Com- MIT Press, 2001) pp. 360–362. puter Music Conference (ICMC, 2000) pp. 117–120. 28. W. Duckworth, “Making Music on the Web,” Manuscript received 20 December 2002. Leonardo Music Journal 9 (1999) pp. 13–17. 36. M. Mühlhäuser, M. Welzl, J. Borchers and R. Gutkas, “GlobeMusic: The Internet Scale of eMusic- 29. A. Xu, W. Woszczyk, Z. Settel, B. Pennycook, R. Making,” Proceedings of the WEDLMUSIC—Web Deliv- Álvaro Barbosa is a researcher with the Music Rowe, P. Galenter, J. Bary, M. Geoff, J. Corey and J. ery of Music—Conference (IEEE Computer Society Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra Univer- Cooperstock, “Real-Time Streaming of Multichannel Press, 2001) pp. 131–138. Audio Data over the Internet,” Journal of the Audio sity in Barcelona, Spain. He holds an under- Engineering Society 47, No. 11 (New York, NY: AES, 37. S. Jordà and A. Barbosa, “Computer Supported graduate degree in electronics and tele- 2000) p. 1,022. Cooperative Music: Overview of Research Work and communications engineering from Aveiro Uni- Projects at the Audiovisual Institute—UPF,” Proceed- versity in Portugal and a postgraduate degree 30. D. Konstantas, “Overview of a Telepresence En- ings of MOSART Workshop on Current Research Direc- vironment for Distributed Musical Rehearsals,” Pro- tions in Computer Music (MOSART IHP Network, in digital arts from the Portuguese Catholic ceedings of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing 2001) pp. 92–97. University in Porto. His work as an experi- (Atlanta, GA: ACM, 1998) pp. 135–137. mental sonic artist and researcher has been 38. Burk [35]. 31. J. Young and I. Fujinaga, “Piano Master Classes featured in several artistic and scientific events via the Internet,” in Proceedings of the International 39. A. Tanaka, MP3Q (2000). For more information, in Portugal and abroad ( Jubileu 2000, Ol- Computer Music Conference (ICMC, 1999) pp. 135–137. see http://fals.ch/Dx/atau/mp3q/. hares de Outono, MOSART, Wedelmusic, 32. D. Ghezzo, J. Gilbert, A. Smith and S. Jacobson, ICMC). His recent research is focused on the The Cassandra Project (1996). For more information, see 40. A. Barbosa and M. Kaltenbrunner, “Public Sound study and development of experimental systems http://www.nyu.edu/pages/ngc/ipg/cassandra/. Objects: A Shared Musical Space on the Web,” in Pro- ceedings of International Conference on Web Delivering of for network music, currently under the frame- 33. B. Bongers, “An Interview with Sensorband,” Music 2002, Darmstadt, Germany (IEEE Computer So- work of a preliminary project entitled Public Computer Music Journal 22, No. 1 (1998) pp. 13–24. ciety Press, 2002) pp. 9–15. Sound Objects.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Leonardo Electronic Almanac

The Leonardo Electronic Almanac is issuing an open call for papers. The LEA Editorial Board seeks pro- posals for the following: Theoretical Discussions: original essays documenting research and critical commentary in areas of discus- sion such as nanotechnology, cyberart, cyberfeminism, hypertext, robotics, bio-art, artificial life and genet- ics. This list is by no means exhaustive, and proposals need not be limited to these areas. Artists’ Statements and Gallery Commissions: international artists are encouraged to submit statements or proposals for exhibiting new media artwork. Curators are welcome to propose thematic exhibitions. LEA encourages international artists, academics, researchers and students to submit proposals for consider- ation. We particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals for articles. Proposals should include:

•a 150–300 word abstract or synopsis detailing subject matter •a brief bio (and list of prior works for reference) • names of collaborators (if suggesting a thematic issue or curated gallery) • any related URLs • contact details. Please send proposals or queries to: Nisar Keshvani Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Electronic Almanac E-mail:

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