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Re: [microsound] laptop performance / locative media
That's a great idea for a project... some ideas that come to mind:
You can probably record the numbers of the people sending data. Though
its somewhat tangential to your idea, I would be interested to see
phone calls incorporated into the performance (a segment of the
performance where the audience erupts into cell-phone-ringing would be
fucking spectacular). Alternatively, I could see a tangent project
where participants are called up and short mini-performances are
broadcast to their phone, based on the database of sounds.
I suspect you might be able to focus the project a little more
depending on how you frame it to the participants. There needn't be a
huge narrative behind it, but it might help if you focused on specific
kinds of locations, sounds, subject material, etc. This could help give
the piece more meaning/context, and help avoid a situation where the
musicians have to force their way through a (probably bad) performance
using nothing but 15 or 20 clips of people saying hello or recording
their dogs (who knows, maybe this could be good).
I think this project is hardly in danger of "celebrating the liberating
power...". I suspect the primary "liberating power" that propelled cell
phones to where they are now is the liberation of business people from
the office. Without the support of businesses early on, I doubt
cellular tech would have nearly infrastructure it has now.
I would love to hear how the performance is progressing. Also, when
you've got time, I would love to know more about the MapHub project,
especially the technology behind it.
- Scott Carver
On Mar 17, 2005, at 4:29 PM, chad vollrath wrote:
I have been thinking a bit about a possible performance that
implements several laptops and mobile devices. I'm working on a
project called MapHub right now (which I believe I mentioned on here
one other time - www.maphub.org). MapHub is an internet application
that can store sounds, images and video from mobile devices. We are
considering putting together a performance in which we ask the
audience to call our number where they record audio into their cell
phones immediately prior to the show (field recordings of street
noise, or whatever they want). These sounds are immediately upped to
the database, and the musicians process the sounds on stage (we would
of course need to be connected to the net - a hotspot would be ideal).
I don't know how this would turn out, or how it would sound. I
imagine that the musicians (of which I would be one) would need at
least a little prep. time in order to isolate some sounds that might
serve as a percussive backdrop - something to give the piece some
structure. I also imagine that the audience - whether in a bar or not
- would be more engaged with the laptop performance, precisely because
they have helped to produce it (I know that I'd listen for the sound I
recorded).
I think that it is interesting that we now have the opportunity to
rely on the technology that the audience brings strapped to their
bodies as constitutive elements of the performance. (There are
certainly issues here that I'm not entirely comfortable with - I don't
want to "celebrate the liberating power of the cell phone" by any
means. Nor do I want to construct a performance atmosphere that
excludes people based on class and tech-literacy.)
The MapHub application also has the ability to record the location
that the sound came from (given that the person who records it is able
to identify the location and enter it into their phone/PDA/or other
mobile device). But I don't know if this would be useful for a
performance.
What do you all think - any ideas? Feedback? Does anyone know of any
similar projects?
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