Weblogmusic is a web-based platform for performers to improvise in asynchronous virtual ensembles and for audiences to experience these performances, in ways that reflect the impacts of digital mediation on human interaction, the human value of a sense of presence with others, and the potential of mediation as an expressive element in performing arts. On Weblogmusic, each Mix is a performance that lives in a web browser. The Mix is built up in a diachronic structure, out of real time, like comment threads on a blog site or like reaction or response videos on YouTube. You might think of it as being like TiVo, or a DVR, for free improvisation. Many video games now use a similar turn-based, time-shifted structure to allow players to compete against other real players, each in their own time, while making it feel live in the moment.
Performers contribute their parts one at a time, responding to what was played before, and together they build born-digital performances that expose the quirks of network communications and make something genuinely human with it. As the audience, we witness performances that only exist in our web browsers, in the moments we’re viewing them. Instead of network glitches breaking the illusion of simultaneous community, we embrace the fact that unpredictable aspects of the network can intervene and in a way "remix" our performances. Those glitches in the moment can influence the human performers and may permanently shape the Mix as it grows.
Join us in exploring the creative potential of time-shifted improvisation!
Instructions:
Load weblogmusic.org then choose from the Watch Now! menu. You can listen to the performance, or you can improvise along with it as it plays. To contribute your performance to the site, record yourself playing along and follow the instructions under How To Perform With Us.
Jeff Morris creates musical experiences that engage audiences’ minds with their surroundings. His performances, installations, lectures, and writings appear in international venues known for cutting-edge arts and deep questions in the arts. He has won awards for making art emerge from unusual situations: music tailored to architecture and cityscapes, performance art for the radio, and serious concert music for toy piano, robot, Sudoku puzzles, and paranormal electronic voice phenomena. His music is on Ravello Records.
https://www.morrismusic.org/social/
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