Chapter 1 - Background

The Birth of Computer Network Music

The League of Automatic Music Composers

Formed in 1978 in the San Francisco Bay Area, The League of Automatic Music Composers was the foundation of the field of "computer network music". The members of the group, each one playing with a computer program they had personally developed, were linked together as a way to exchange data and interconnect processes.

Max Neuhaus - Public Supply I (1966)

A pioneer of network music, Max Neuhaus performed this piece by mixing incoming telephone calls to a radio station.

The Internet Age

Global String (2000)

Created Atau Tanaka & Kasper Toeplitz, Global String is a multi-site instrument which uses the Internet network as the resonating body of the instrument. A physical steel cable is equipped with vibration sensors that transmit the vibration of the physical string to a metaphorical “network string” that connects two remote locations. On the other end of the “network string”, a similar steel cable reacts to the incoming vibration data.

FMOL Trio (2000)

A performance by the FMOL trio that uses the FMOL software developped by Sergi Jordà.

European Bridges Ensemble - Bridges (2006)

A collaborative composition made with the Quintet.net software. The composition was made entirely on the internet. The Quintet.net environment allows for up to 5 performers to perform and compose music collectively.

Playsound.space demo video

Playsound.space can be used to perform search queries to the Freesound online database and to play and mix and loop selected sounds together.

The Mobile Phone Age

Golan Levin - Dialtones (2001)

Dialtones is a musical performance in which the music is produced by the ringtones of the audience smartphones. Audience members were given a specific ringtone to download and a specific seat in the room. The performers was then able to dial up specific phones using a dedicated interface.

Interconnected Instruments

Sensorband - Soundnet (1996)

Soundnet is a large scale net structure equipped with sensors measuring the tension of the ropes and transmitting it to a digital signal processing software. This multiuser instrument is performed by the members of Sensorband by climbing on it and pulling on the ropes.

CoSiMa project - Drops (2015)

Drops is a collective musical experience accessible on smartphones. Participants can play a limited number of sound drops that vary in pitch depending on the touch position. The sound drops are automatically echoed by the smartphones of other players before coming back to the player, creating a fading loop of long echoes until they vanish.

CoSiMa project - CoLoop (2017)

CoLoop is a physical speaker integrating a loop sequencer that can be collectively edited by multiple persons via a web application accessible on their smartphones' web browser.

Ubiquitous Computing

Ubiquitous Computing technologies at Xerox PARC circa 1991

A documentary video showcasing some of the technologies developed for Ubiquitous Computing at Xerox PARC by Mark Weiser and his collaborators and their integration in their work environment.