Exploiting Latency In The Design Of A Networked Music Performance System For Percussive Collective Improvisation

Ari Liloia; Roger Dannenberg

Exploiting Latency In The Design Of A Networked Music Performance System For Percussive Collective Improvisation

Abstract:

We present the design, prototype implementation, and informal testing of a distributed web-based networked music performance (NMP) system for collaborative improvisation and experimentation. Influenced by composition and interaction design techniques from a wide range of work on collaborative virtual music environments, rather than treating latency as inherently disruptive to the types of musical and social engagement that characterize traditional performance, we incorporate and exploit network delay to facilitate and visualize them, providing a novel approach to creating "jam session"-like experiences. During sessions, users collaboratively perform semi-improvised music in quasi-real time. The production and interpretation of individual musical gestures ("drum hits") are visualized in a continuously devised feedback network. The music produced can be treated as a starting point for compositions developed asynchronously, or as complete pieces of music produced live.