Network Music Festival

Sound without Borders // 15-18th July 2020

Go to Online Exhibition

Local Code, for Local People

In this performance, a three person, networked live coding performance using the new, AHRC funded MIMIC platform and the maximillian audio library, will be attempted. The performance will be different from previous networked live coding performances because code will automatically, iteratively and remotely be executed on the computers of members of the audience. Whilst most aspects of the performance will remain consistent throughout the networked performers and viewers, there are a number of interesting oddities caused by the approach of local code execution that this performance will look to explore and exploit.

Stochasticity and chance has been used in generative music for centuries. Whilst initially using analogue methods such as dice or the I Ching, computer based generative music often relies on the generation of pseudo random numbers. Each call to Math.random() in Javascript will be unique to the device it is being executed on, having subtle differences to the musical experience of each viewer. This exponentially builds as each audience member’s local state gradually drifts from that of the performers, and each other, creating a performance that could only exist in such a set up, in a world where remote viewing and dislocated performance is becoming the norm.


Louis McCallum’s work both individual and collaborative, have been widely exhibited across London, notably at the Royal Festival Hall, and in Dublin, New York and Austria. Mortimer, the robotic drummer he developed during his PhD, has appeared on the BBC’s Christmas Lectures and on Channel Five’s The Gadget Show.

Mick Grierson is Research Leader at UAL Creative Computing Institute (CCI). His research explores new approaches to the creation of sounds, images, video and interactions through signal processing, machine learning and information retrieval techniques. Hardware and software based on his research has been widely used by world leading production companies, tech start-ups and artists including the BBC, Channel 4, Sigur Ros, Christian Marclay, Martin Creed, Arca.

Matthew Yee-King (DPhil, MSc, BSc) is an academic and experienced educator in the department of computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. As a researcher, he has investigated the application of artificial intelligence techniques to creative activity, for example sound design.

louismccallum.com

http://www.yeeking.net/