Aesthetic and technical strategies for networked music performance
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Aesthetic and technical strategies for networked music performance Rebekah Wilson1 Received: 10 December 2018 / Accepted: 27 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Networked music is no longer a future genre: the global quarantine event of 2020 launched the concept of performing together over the Internet into the mainstream. While the demand for performing at a distance may be a new imperative, musicians find themselves faced with technological and performative processes that do not appear to be suitable for performing music together online, due particularly to network latency which disrupts the ability for musicians to synchronize. The research presented in this paper investigates and challenges the reasons why networked music is not readily embraced by musicians and describes how that might change, by way of interviews with practitioners and an in-depth review of the technical constraints. Limitations that might cause frustration are in fact shown to have creative strategies that give rise to aesthetic approaches, distinct to the platform. By exploiting the constraints, in tandem with developing technology designed specifically for remote performance, aesthetic implications arise that not only accommodate the inconveniences of latency and acoustic feedback but can help us adapt and transform how we engage in real-time online, towards a future where we can imagine performing together over even more dramatic distances such as high-latency, low-bandwidth locations outside of urban areas—or even over galactic distances. Keywords Networked music performance · Online performance · Contemporary music composition · Music technology · Network latency
1 Introduction In March 2020, one week before the world went into quarantine for COVID-19, I had given a week-long workshop on the topic of Networked Music Performance at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. A week later the students realised that their May concerts would not be taking place in the concert halls, and immediately embraced network technology to adapt and create new work. I was and remain deeply inspired and hopeful for a future of distributed music making. My approach to performing over the Internet is informed both by the research I have gathered during my fifteen years as a provider of remote recording services for the audio production and post-production industry, and by my work as a composer/performer. The days and weeks following the global quarantine were a profoundly significant time both professionally and musically as myself, and my * Rebekah Wilson rebekah@source‑elements.com 1
Source Elements, LLC 1222 Florence Ave,, Evanston, Illinois 60202, USA
colleagues were overwhelmed with requests from around the world for services for musicians and audio professionals to work remotely, an especially difficult task for musicians and music makers who have traditionally relied on the ability to collaborate together in the same physical space. The concern surfaced constantly: how can musicians
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