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Over the last year, it has
become possible to deliver CD quality sound over the internet
in a way that can be easily streamed and downloaded by web
users without the need for anything more than an average internet
connection. As with many things online, this is by no means
a perfected technology, but it is already having a significant
effect on the way in which we are viewing, listening to and
using the world wide web.
As a result of the ongoing developments in Quicktime, Realplayer
and the mp3 file format, we are now at liberty to bypass Virgin
Megastores and HMV's when looking to expand our own music
collections. Furthermore, by escaping the many restrictions
of the music industry's somewhat narrow vision, we also gain
access to endless experiments and bedroom productions that
would never normally make it to our doorsteps. Alexei Shulgin
and Vuk Cosics' low-tech pop videos (www.vuk.org/ascii/music/)
or Meiko
and Ryu's distinctive brand of playful dance music are
both examples of interesting work that would not easily find
a wide audience without the internet as its prime means of
dissemination. As the technology continues to improve and
establish itself, It will become an increasingly common activity
for us all to download music from the web then simply compile
it onto recordable CD, DAT or minidisc for later easy access.
So as sound continues to make a welcome return to our phone
lines, artists, designers and musicians have been keen to
explore its potential both as a downloadable resource and
as components for site specific work. Already, there are many
online communities devoted to the development of net radio,
archived music and audio work that responds or is reliant
on network activity and the intervention of the user.
For the last few years, the Dutch artist Jan Robert Leegate
has been developing various online works that are reliant
on the use of audio. By pointing a browser at www.xs4all.nl/~leegte,
the user is presented with an arcane interface through which
a number of discreet works can be called up. Basic ambient
sound loops accompany simple repetative animations that tend
to manipulate the browser itself rather than use it as a simple
display-case. These are interspersed with electronic music
tracks developed in collaboration with Edo Paulus and Steven
Brunsmann under the umbrella title M>O>S. In amongst this
intentionally obscure series of buttons and pop up menus,
Leegate has also chosen to place anonymous links that take
the user to other websites such as JODI, kalx and amaze.co.uk's
noodlebox. An interesting way of creating unusual intersections
with a bulk of material that lies beyond Leegate's control.
So as we begin to browse and open up the components of the
site, we see a fluid and shifting relationship evolve between
the works themselves and a background of more general net
noise. And it is the very nature of the spaces and borders
between the hypnotic sounds and visuals that seem to become
the focus of this work.
OPT Technology Inc have also produced a site that accomodates
non-linear user navigation where carefully constructed sound
loops phase and interact with each other resulting in a layered
and elastic sound work that can be tweeked and toyed with
by the end user. Prototype #22 (codename404) allows you to
open a series of five Ôproducts' resembling simple electronic
devices. Having clicked on one of these products, a console
window opens revealing graphic representations of circuit
boards, video displays, switches and buttons which can be
used to make simple changes to the overall bed of sound. In
keeping with the kind of science fiction aesthetic born from
films like George Lucas's THX 1138 or the novels of William
Gibson, the look of the site is peppered with the heavy handed
terminology of corporate ownership and evokes an anonymous
and dehumanising face of technology. Using the products is
a little like playing with a high-tech crystal radio set where
the various components lend themselves to constant adjustment
and retuning. What is most striking about Prototype #22 is
the skill with which the audio has been designed resulting
in a subtle and evocative ambient composition and because
each product opens up in its own console window, you can continue
to play with the work as you move away from www.c404.com
to browse other parts of the web.
earshot by Andi Freeman and Jason Skeet is a more complex
experiment in the use of net activity as a space from which
sound and music can be generated. Launched in September at
Backspace near London Bridge and made with support from Artec,
earshot bypasses the browser altogether functioning as a complete
application available for download at www.deepdisc.com/earshot.
Described as "a toy, a tool and a musical instrument" earshot
is a basic sampler allowing you to manipulate an existing
library of sound files. Instead of buttons, sliders or a piano
keyboard, the user places rotating graphic representations
of sounds on a black screen. Where these sounds are placed
defines the speed, volume and pitch at which they playback
and in this way, a user can easily build up digital sound
collages reminiscent in part of Schaeffer's musique concrete.
Although a user can add his or her own sounds to the existing
library, earshot will also find samples for you by trawling
the web. Having entered the web address of your choice, earshot
searches sites folder by folder until it finds data or sound
files that it can use or playback for you. As the application
comes across a sound, it is added to an automatically evolving
audio work that reflects and maps the electronic spaces visited
by the earshot search engine. In this way, earshot becomes
a kind of web sonar providing a vocabularly with which we
can describe what could be deemed as the acoustic spaces of
the network. Or at the very least, it is a simple way to convert
the internet into an endless source of audio material.
Jon Thomson is an artist based in London
www.thomson-craighead.net |
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