(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-04)
Walker, William; Belet, Brian
Cross-Town Traffic 2.0 is an ensemble music performance environment for any number of audience performers, a principal performer, and a conductor. The performers use their own mobile devices running a performance interface based on the Web Audio API. The conductor leads the performers through a fully composed musical structure. Sixteen previously recorded audio files (eight Hammond B3 samples, performed and recorded by Walker; and eight viola samples, performed and recorded by Belet) are arranged into four groups, with the audience performers similarly arranged in four corresponding performance sections. Following cues from the conductor, the ensuing performance immerses humans in the midst of cellphone speakers and the flow of the musical structure. Individual performers can shape their own audio contribution within the confines of the larger composed structure, providing an element of playful participation. The resulting distributed cellphone audio challenges the performance roles of the humans in the room, as opposed to the number and quality of loudspeakers in the space. Using mobile web audio offers very low barriers to audience participation, in contrast to logging into an app store, searching and finding the appropriate native app, installing and launching the app, all prior to the start of the performance.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-04)
Walker, William; Belet, Brian
Using the Web Audio API, a roomful of smartphones becomes a platform on which to create novel musical experiences. As seen at WAC 2015, composers and performers are using this platform to create clouds of sound distributed in space through dozens of loudspeakers. This new platform offers an opportunity to reinvent the roles of audience, composer, and performer. It also presents new technology challenges; at WAC 2015 some servers crashed under load. We also saw difficulties creating and joining private WiFi networks. In this piece, building on the lessons of WAC 2015, we load all our sound resources onto each phone at the beginning of the piece from a stable, well-known web host. Where possible, we use the new Service Worker API to cache our resources locally on the phone. We also replace real-time streaming control of roomful of phones with real-time engagement of the audience members as performers.