Transient

Transient was a series of net-loop performances that allowed for interaction between members of a dispersed ensemble working simultaneously on multiple continents. Transient was created by a loose collective of sound artists from several countries that came together to participate in collaborative streaming audio performances.

Presentations:

Closing the Loop, Adelaide (February 2000)
CalArts Integrated Media Show, Los Angeles (April 2000)  LISTEN
Net.congestion, Amsterdam (October 2000)
CEAIT Festival, Los Angeles (January 2001)
Dust, Linz (May 2001)
TransCodecExpress, Linz (June 2002)

Participating artists:

Jesse Gilbert
Tim Boykett
Jeremy Hicks
Sean Rooney
Ronit Kirchman
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Malcolm Riddoch

Recent advances in digital technologies have enabled collaborations that shatter traditional artistic and geographic boundaries. Such developments have only contributed to the continuing destabilization of the notion of an artist working in a single medium, in isolation from the world.

This is particularly evident in the field of music, as the role of the “composer” has been gradually morphed into that of the programmer, network engineer, or orchestrator/facilitator. It is with this in mind that the Transient project was initiated.

In each performance a serial chain is formed in which each participant [node] sends audio to the next in turn, forming a closed loop that allows for a new form of ensemble interaction across the network.

In each performance of Transient there has been one node that has “presented” the work in a space accessible to a live audience. Ongoing research into spatialization techniques has allowed the presentation space to mirror the network structure of the piece by placing each “node” in the loop into a three-dimensional field of multi-channel sound. With each node occupying a unique position in the presentation space, the audience can experience the complexity of the evolving performance directly, with the ability to locate individual voices in the ensemble and also experience the aggregate sound of the group.

A collaborative, essentially collective, distributed exploration of the network as a sound space…