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Public Sound Objects: A Shared Musical Space on the Web


Álvaro Barbosa, Martin Kaltenbrunner
Music Technology Group - Pompeu Fabra University
Passeig de Circumval·lació 8 - 08003 Barcelona, España
E-mails: {abarbosa; mkalten}@iua.upf.es


Abstract

In this paper we describe “The Public
Sound Objects” project and its context. This
project, which is currently under development,
approaches Internet collaborative music
performance, going beyond most common
paradigms where the network is mainly used as
a channel to provide a connection between
performative spaces. The system will provide an
on-line public performance space where people
can be found participating in an ongoing
collaborative sonic event. The users connected
to this installation control a server side
synthesis engine through a web-based interface.
The resulting “Sound Objects” form a sonic
piece that is then streamed back to each user.
The user takes the role of a performer and his
contribution has a direct and unique influence
on the overall resulting soundscape. This
ongoing event is also played back at the
installation for a live audience, with added
contextual elements such as sound
spacialization and metaphorical visual
representations of current participants.

Keywords: Sonic Arts; Internet Music; Shared
Virtual Environments; Web based
Collaboration; Sound Synthesis; Human
Computer Interaction; Internet Collaborative
Music Performance.

1. Introduction

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
(CSCW) is one of the major research fields in
modern information society, and recent
technological advances, specially in Internet
computing, have allowed computer science
researchers and developers to create different
types of collaborative tools, such as white
boards, shared editors, video conference
systems or even e-mail based systems that are
already part of our daily life.
On the other hand during the last decades
we heave seen artists taking cutting edge
technology and using it to maximize the
aesthetics and conceptual value of their work,
not only by enhancing the way they traditionally
create, but also by using technology as a media
itself to express meaningful artistic work.
The idea of using computer networks as an
element in collective artistic creation and
performance (or when both come together in
improvisation) was no exception.
Collaboration paradigms have great
relevance in music, since traditionally music
performance is a result of joint synchronous
events where musicians with their individual
performance contribute in real time to a final
piece.
Early experiments with musical computer
networks at a local area scale date back to the
late 1970’s in California with performances by
the League of Automatic Music Composers [1].
However with the massive world wide
growth of the Internet community, characterized
by users strongly moved by music in many
different ways, more appealing possibilities for
music composers and performers came up in the
1990’s.

1.1 Collaboration over the internet

So far in music or sonic arts collaboration
experiments over the Internet the biggest
breakthrough has been the capability to provide
remote communication between worldwide
displaced musicians and composers. This type
of connectivity tremendously enhances the
traditional collaboration paradigm for music
production.
Early experimental systems based on this
idea go back to the early 1990’s with the Craig
R. Latta’s NetJam [2] from Berkley University.
This system allowed a community of users to
collaborate producing music in an asynchronous