Abstract by Chris Brown
What do we need to know about each other to play with each other in a network? Do we all have to speak (use) the same language (software?) Do we all have to adhere to an agreed upon protocol? Is that protocol specific to a piece, or could we create one in which many different pieces (performances) are possible? How much freedom does a network piece allow to each individual performer? Is it possible to design an “open” system, in which each performer is free to send any other player any type of message, without any requirements on how it should be used? Each player publishes whichever data (s)he likes to whomever (s)he wants in the network, and the receivers are free to use or ignore that data in whatever way they like. But network music is only achieved once data is being used and shared intensively enough that new emergent behaviors are achieved. This approach favors a practice in which every player in the network is a programmer, because pieces in which all the code is written by one player tend towards uniformity. There is nothing inherently fascinating about programmers performing: network music is interesting because players make their own idiosyncratic and flexible software instruments, and those instruments are responsive to other instruments in a network. Know-Nothing network music uses rich specifications, loosely applied.
This paper will provide examples of the author’s network music projects whose limitations have led to these conclusions. It will also propose a minimal protocol to implement them.
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