void * ambience (2021- )

The performance series void * ambience experiments with sound and video content that is developed through a focus on the topographies and networks through which these flow.  Initiated during the time of COVID and social distancing, this project explores processes of information sharing, real-time performance and network communication protocols that contribute to the sustenance of our digital communities, shared experiences and telematic intimacies.  We are interested in the multi-dimensionality and intersubjectivities of time folded in the instance of an online conference; and in the temporal zones of the pandemic, developing site-specific projects that connect to prevailing stages of lockdown in Toronto

In this particular interaction void * ambience : Latency , we respond to the idea of the digital wilderness – the overabundance of online streams that we must filter and comprehend, and explore a common issues in everyday communication today – latency – as a compositional parameter.  We use the platform-agnostic data exchange interface ‘Allhands’ developed by Palumbo that transmits ‘ping’ delay times in real time across the performers’ IP addresses, interconnecting the oscillations of the visuals to the rhythms, spatialization and reverberation of the soundscape through live coding and analog patching. 

In so doing, these performances not only reference the lines that allow us to transmit information from one side of the world to the other, they also explore the interpenetration of these lines, from the entanglement of viewership with network stability, to the collaborative nurturing of a digital body that exists within the infrastructures and invisible layers of the Internet. 

This performance consists of : 

Kavi, Michael Palumbo and Joel Ong


Ilze Briede [artist name Kavi] is a multi-media nomad traversing across numerous disciplines including visual art, digital design and interactive installation. Kavi’s current research examines the application of virtual experience environments, such as Mixed Reality, the Internet along with immersive video projection and real-time collaboration to explore human and non-human creativity, art, and human-computer co-working practices. Kavi is a PhD student in Digital Media at York University, Toronto Canada. Her work can be found here 

Michael Palumbo is an electroacoustic music improviser and developer. His PhD research spans distributed creativity, temporality, and version control systems. Select works include Mischmasch (2020), git show (2019), and Data Issues: Please See Attachment (2018).  His work can be found here.  

Presentations:

  • Void * ambience : Latency.  Currents New Media Festival.  (Virtual). June 2021
  • Void * ambience : Latency.  International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) Symposium (panel presentation, demonstration and live performance)  June 2021
  • Void * ambience : Latency.  FACTT – Festival of Arts and Sciences (virtual)  Jan 2021
  • Void * ambience “Kalediscopic Imaginations”, invited performance hosted by ArtSci Salon. Fields Institute, University of Toronto Oct 2020