FINALdaf

Cynthia Payne – DANM MFA Student March 29, 2006

Pictures and Video from the Festival

CYBERJAMMER

This is a proposal for an installation/performance in BLINK,
the Digital Arts Festival DANM Student Exhibition at the
Porter College Sesnon Gallery on May 5, 2006.

CYBERJAMMER, as presented for this event is as much
about the levels of access and indexicality of digital music
performance and composition as it is about the actual music
being produced.

CYBERJAMMER is an installation of an online music collaboration and video studio
equipped with NINJAM realtime online music collaboration software,
which allows participants to play music together online in realtime.

For opening night, the applicant, Cynthia Payne will be playing live online
in the computer music studio with online participants from around the world
logged into NINJAM servers. Live video inside the CYBERJAMMER will consist
of 1) live feed from the monitoring station, 2) live action from inside the
CYBERJAMMER via DVCam, and 3) video art.
In the Sesnon Gallery, upstairs from the actual CYBERJAMMER live studio
patrons first see the webcam monitor and headphones for audio. On the
monitor screen they will see a live feed of the activities from inside the
CYBERJAMMER: a person at a laptop computer and projections around
the room. In the headphones they will hear the sounds of a live music
session taking place.

As the patron approaches the webcam monitor they will see themselves in a corner of the
screen as well. Whatever image is in front of the camera will be simultaneously
webcasting into the CYBERJAMMER studio, and projected on one ofthe walls there.
So the patron might see themselves projected on that wall. The Sesnon webcam
monitor will also display to the patron directions for visiting in-person the
CYBERJAMMER studio downstairs in Porter D-140.

CYBERJAMMER is an installation of an online music collaboration and video studio
equipped with NINJAM realtime online music collaboration software,
which allows participants to play music together online in realtime.

For opening night, the applicant, Cynthia Payne will be playing live online
in the computer music studio with online participants from around the world
logged into NINJAM servers. Live video inside the CYBERJAMMER will consist
of 1) live feed from the monitoring station, 2) live action from inside the
CYBERJAMMER via DVCam, and 3) video art.
When patrons arrive at the electronics lab in Porter D140 they will hear live audio
over loudspeakers of the live jam in progress as they are directed into the sub-room
of the lab which has a glass window looking into the CYBERJAMMER live studio.

Video projection on the walls will show the NINJAM screen interface indicating each
participant's track and the text of live chat from the jam participants. Additional wall
projection includes live video of the monitoring station and ad hoc video art.
Incidental lighting includes reflective surfaces, shadows, and color.

The entire opening night performance will be videotaped for projected playback
inside the CYBERJAMMER such that reflective surfaces are used to create multiple
presences of activity when no one is actually in the room during the Gallery's
subsequent open times.

The nature of Cyberjammer is such that most of the “songs” played during jams are quite brief, and thus is simpatico with the theme of BLINK.

Artist's Statement

At the intersection of the Commons and the Standing Reserve, between the layers of indexicality comes CYBERJAMMER: Playing Late Music

What is Late Music?

Late Music is a term coined by the author to describe the music that is created in a CYBERJAMMER using online music collaboration software, which actively incorporates latency as essential to its functionality. Outgoing data is routed to a buffer and the software adds delay to it before it is sent to recipients. Thus, incoming data is arrives in measured intervals and somewhat later than when it was actually played. The change in the original rhythm or time constituents of the music being received is minimal based more on network integrity than on the original data encoded music. Players must still expect a delay in hearing what others have played, but the data will be arriving in a timed fashion: the language of music. One's own part is heard simultaneously with its performance and should not be heard back with the incoming data, unless that is desired. Musicians could play with the delay almost as if it were another instrument or a looping device. If there is unwanted echo of one's own part being heard with incoming data it can be fixed in the mix.

As is the case with John Cage’s Chance Music, where intentionality is to be avoided, Late Music compels participants to become more open-minded when they do not immediately hear what they expected to hear when they expected to hear it. Late Music might sound similar to established genres as musicians bring along their influences, but the end result will be a hybrid of those styles, rather than deriving its source from a single influence. Late Music doesn’t necessarily have to sound like free jazz or something abstract, but it can be completely indeterministic, and players must be willing to anticipate immediate changes to establish structures and “go with the flow”. This might include being able to keep the piece going when there is what sounds like an incomplete phrase, a shortened verse, or sporadic interruptions.

NINJAM breaks free of the restrictions of space and time. People in Sweden jamming with people in Santa Cruz, and people in Australia jamming with people in Pennsylvania (and Santa Cruz), all in realtime and (somewhat) simultaneously. One defining quality of Late Music is that it is fun - fun to play and fun to hear as participants giggle and cavort their way through a perceptual and auditory adventure.

Video Projection (inside the CYBERJAMMER) Opening:
1) artist's computer screen 2) observer station (video art when not there) 3) dvcam tape playback, live action and art

Equipment List (All equipment is readily available except the projector, headphone boxes and headphones. Lyle mentioned that headphones and headphone boxes might be a DANM good purchase)

CYBERJAMMER SETUP

computer w/fast internet applications: Ninjam and Absynth Midi Keyboard Guitar Microphone and stand Mixer 3 projectors inside CYBERJAMMER (ninjam, sesnon incoming webcast, videoart)
2 iSight cameras

1 pair Speakers 2 pair of headphones
iMac flat panel (sesnon outgoing webcast)
Recording of inside CYBERJAMMER
DVCamcorder

tables and chairs incidental lighting