The World Opera: an introduction

As long as there has been networked communication available, through telephone, satellite and now fiber optics, artistic experiments have made use of the network as both stage and platform for worldwide interactive live performances. Until recently the technology has not been of high enough quality to host longer, coherent works such as opera, but this is beginning to change. The World Opera is an international organization working with artist and researchers across the globe to establish a multimodal mixed-reality staging system, the World Opera House, for the production of distributed operatic works. This paper includes a discussion of the aesthetic implications of mixed-reality opera, concluding with social and philosophical arguments for establishing the World Opera and distributed performance in general.

This paper was presented by the authors at the Opera Leed’s Conference 2012 and was subsequently published in The Business of Opera, edited by Anastasia Belina-Johnson and Derek B. Scott as part of the Ashgate Interdisciplinary Studies in Opera series.

The World Opera: a technical, aesthetic, and philosophical introduction (PDF format)

A film by documentarian Katrin Beckman covering our work can be found here.

The World Opera and The World Opera Stage

The World Opera, in association with our institutional, academic, government, and private partners, have just completed a three-month series of test implementing current and cutting-edge technologies for the distributed, interactive performance of operatic works in real-time across high-speed, high-performance audio/video networks. These tests occurred in at the Music Conservatory of the University of Tromsø during March, April, and May 2010. A white paper was produced in 2010 that serves to document our thoughts and processes during these early efforts.

The World Opera Stage (PDF format)

Accompanying documentation can be viewed by playing the media file to the left or here.

Interfacing the Network: an embedded approach

This paper discusses the design, construction, and development of a multi-site collaborative instrument, The Loop, developed by the JacksOn4 collective during 2009-10 and formally presented in Oslo at the arts.on.wires and NIME conferences in 2011. The development of this instrument is primarily a reaction to historical network performance that either attempts to present traditional acoustic practice in a distributed format or utilizes the network as a conduit to shuttle acoustic and performance data amongst participant nodes. In both scenarios the network is an integral and indispensable part of the performance, however, the network is not perceived as an instrument, per se. The Loop is an attempt to create a single, distributed hybrid instrument retaining traditionally acoustic interfaces and resonant bodies that are mediated by the network. This paper appears in the proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2011.

Interfacing the Network: an embedded approach (PDF format)

Documentation of this work is available by clicking on the media file to the left.

meditation, mediation, meditation

Originally commissioned from The 9th International World Harp Congress as a request for a work for harp and live electronics, this work was subsequently recorded by harpist Cliona Doris and is available on A Pale Yellow Sky, a compilation of new works for harp released by RTE Lyric FM in the Republic of Ireland. CD ASIN: B001DCHVD8

WorldCat Listing

A recording of this work is available on the works page.

A letter from the trenches of Adrianopolis

Winner of the 2004 EMS International Prize (Sweden) for sound-text art, A letter from the trenches of Adrianopolis sources the human voice and the text of Marinetti's imfamous letter (which would inspire Russolo's Art of Noises) to recreate the sonic landscape of the battlefield as related by the father of Futurism. This work is included on a compilation of EMS Prize recipients, Winner Takes It All, available from Caprice Records/Naxos.