Now in the Network
Michael Rofe · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021
Abstract Network technologies have played an increasingly prominent role in sound art practices over the last forty years. The consequent creative possibilities associated with space and locality are clearly apparent: networks enable connections between geographically remote locations, and allow the creation of new virtual spaces for sound art to inhabit. Less immediately apparent—though equally significant—are the ways in which network technologies have enabled artists to explore temporal relationships in their work. In particular, network technologies inevitably involve latency—a short time delay between the moment a signal is created at one location and the moment it is perceived at another. Taking traditional notated music practice as a point of reference, this chapter considers a number of case studies in which sound artists have explored new types of temporal relationships in their work, as a consequence of their use of network technologies. This investigation is framed in the context of Bergson’s concept of durée and Clarke’s concept of subject position.