Distinguished artist, curator, professor and No Bounds collaborator Mark Fell led the 2020 Opening concert which included work by Rian Treanor and MICA who were all following the proposition below.

A series of new works that explore the musical possibilities of remote participation, with a focus on exploratory forms of networked interaction between audiences and collaborators. These include workshops, live performance, installation and critical discussion.

“We see this project as an opportunity to explore new forms of musical collaboration and structure, not just weak imitations of pre-existing practices badly transplanted into online formats.”

The project examines relationships between procedural action, algorithmic process, non-linear interfaces, musical structure, and group-based performance. These are considered in response to isolation and lockdown—between the polar extremes of physical disconnectivity and digitally mediated hyperconnectivity—with the aim of offering unusual alternatives to the technical, aesthetic and ideological limitations of streaming and other traditional web-based formats.

The project’s open and flexible infrastructure can accommodate different forms of performance - for example the audience members can participate in the performance of the work, or specific collaborators could share interfaces in real-time from remote locations. This challenges familiar concepts such as the distinction between performer and audience; the role, act and form of composition; the club, gallery or venue as singular site of creative action.

Technically speaking, the process does not involve the streaming of audio. Instead it is based upon the sharing of pattern generating data. Here all audio is generated by the user’s local computer, and is therefore uncompressed and high quality. The system uses minimal bandwidth, and continues to function even if it is briefly taken offline.

Conceived of as non-linear self-organising “scores”, these will be presented at festivals and institutions over the coming year. Each iteration offers an opportunity to test and explore different structures and systems, and will result in the premier of a new piece. It is anticipated that a record will be released at the end of the year that documents the project.

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