To the Edge with China: Explorations in Network Performance
Robert L. Hamilton, Deepak Iyer, Chris Chafe, Ge Wang · 2008
The complex nature of distributed network- based musical performance served as the starting point for the Stanford University SoundWIRE group's 2008 collaboration with Peking University in Beijing, China. In planning and executing the multi-ensemble networked concert entitled Pacific Rim of Wire at Stanford on April 29, 2008, musicians and engineers from Stanford and Beijing undertook issues—technical and musical—ranging from the use of incompatible networking address protocols to the synchronization of performers, human and computer, across a 6000 mile span of network. This paper outlines the technical and musical strategies employed to support the production's demands, as well as specific methodologies employed for the realization of Terry Riley's In C. I. INTRODUCTION Musical and technical strategies in local performances need to be re-factored when musicians are separated by long physical and acoustical distances. We address some of these issues in a large scale concert between two venues separated by 6000 miles: Stanford, California and Beijing, China. The SoundWIRE research group at Stanford (1) has been organizing and implementing technologies for real-time distributed performance for the last several years. The Pacific Rim of Wire concert highlights a number of key musical and technical chal- lenges that still loom large above current attempts to perform using communication technologies. The technical and musical demands of the Pacific Rim of Wire collaboration required the initiation of new types of network connectivity, the development of software to deal with next-generation Internet backbones, the implementation of musical strategies to deal with network-induced acoustical delays, and the organization of network-based metronomic systems with which a laptop orchestra synchronizes its performance with an ensemble of acoustic instruments. Performing with ensembles based in other countries affords musicians and researchers the opportunity to explore edges of musical and technological strategies. The Pacific Rim of Wire performances included an ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments perform- ing with the Stanford New Ensemble, using traditional Western instruments, all mixed together with the newly minted Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk) (2). Such a collaboration also offers a unique opportunity to explore the manner in which traditional pieces can be performed in this medium. As part of this effort, a performance of Terry Rilley's In C is showcased.