Cross-Town Traffic 2.0
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.
@inproceedings{2016_EA_36,
abstract = {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.},
address = {Atlanta, GA, USA},
author = {Walker, William and Belet, Brian},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Web Audio Conference},
editor = {Freeman, Jason and Lerch, Alexander and Paradis, Matthew},
month = {April},
pages = {},
publisher = {Georgia Tech},
series = {WAC '16},
title = {Cross-Town Traffic 2.0},
year = {2016},
ISSN = {2663-5844}
}