How is this piece related to other online works?

-- Finding Time (ftime@somewhere.org), February 27, 1999

Answers

It is important to note that this project builds upon many early experimentations with large-scale collaborations that have been ongoing for the last five years on the Internet. The work of ParkBench in video streaming, for example, and the exhibition "PORT:Navigating Digital Cultures" organized by Artnetweb can clearly be seen as part of an emerging genre of Internet works that are primarily process or performance oriented. Such works stand in contrast to static art sites that act more as a gallery or portfolio presentation for individual artists.

This piece attempts to build from such a movement in that it makes use of similar technologies, but differs in its conscious attempt at "scoring" the interactions of the performers. This is aimed not only at involving the performers in a new process of "reading" the screen for relevant musical instruction, but also at giving the audience a window into the process they are hearing via the Web.

-- Jesse Gilbert (jgilbert@mail.wesleyan.edu), February 28, 1999.

Since I am not as familiar with the on-line repertoire as Jesse, I will address this question by speaking of my personal experiences of performing in on-line works. From what I can tell, there is a growing tradition of live on-line improvisations. I have played in several such pieces working in contexts where all of the players were in the same place geographically, and where the players were separated in space communicating through the network. I've even played in a piece where I was in the same place as the other players, but for isolation purposes, I was enclosed in a bank vault, unable to communicate with anyone except through the network. This situation is much like that of being in a high- class recording studio where the isolation even on a live take is so comprehensive that people are in different rooms. Nothing new here, except for the live broadcast part and the graphic collaborators.

The limitations of this format are the same as they would be in any other context, as I've mentioned above. However, the potentials, in certain aspects, are perhaps more interesting. The variation of players mindsets, and environmental influences can lead to unique musical circumstance. What we hope to do with this work, is emphasize those variations and "musicalize" them, if possible. The primary way in which this piece differs from other works I've been involved with, is the predetermined structuring of the work. In certain versions of Adrift that I performed with Jesse Gilbert and Helen Thorington, we worked in reference to a score that Jesse created. However, we were all in the same location, and the score was not specifically related to the visual material that was being presented to viewers. This piece attempts to draw more connections between all of the disparate elements to create a structurally sound entity.

-- Scott Rosenberg (scottrosenberg@hotmail.com), February 28, 1999.

Hi Thanks for Finding Time it is an incredibly inspiring work . I look forward to joining our work together again. The link to www.cat.nyu.edu/parkbench doesn't seem to be working . There are many great improvisational music/sound performances there by Jesse Gilbert.

-- Nina Sobell (sobell@cat.nyu.edu), June 19, 1999.