Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Intercultural Tele-Improvisation: Inside the Online Global Jam Session

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Tele-Improvisation: Intercultural Interaction in the Online Global Music Jam Session

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Cultural Computing ((SSCC))

  • 541 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter introduces the practice of intercultural tele-improvisation and explores the way in which geographically dispersed performers improvise together online across global time zones, disciplines, cultures and musical traditions. It outlines the conceptual foundations of the research featured in this book, its application to the analysis of live online performances, and a summary of its findings. The chapter describes the role of culture in tele-improvisatory interaction and the expression of intentionality in online musical engagement. It also examines the use of metaphor and schematic bodily experience to enable an in-depth understanding of online performers’ interactive approaches and strategic thought processes. The chapter concludes with an outline of each chapter and its contribution to the field of cultural computing.

It is time now for an inclusive curriculum where improvised music is no longer ignored or denigrated. Borders should not only be crossed, but should dissolve.

—Pauline Oliveros

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Details of the festival and performances available at https://upstage.org.nz/blog/?page_id=3447.

  2. 2.

    The term VJ or video jockey refers to visual artists who mix live cinematic collages of video and images in real-time to live or pre-recorded music or sound.

  3. 3.

    VJ mixes can be viewed from https://diasporasound.wordpress.com/vjmixes/.

  4. 4.

    VisitorsStudio is an online multi-user database in which users can upload, manipulate and collage their own audio-visual files with others, to remix existing media (see VisitorsStudio official Website http://www.visitorsstudio.org/x.html).

  5. 5.

    Diaspora is free to download and listen to from https://ethernetorchestra.net/recordings/.

  6. 6.

    DIAF is a specially designed analytical framework to examine distributed interaction across a range of tele-collaborative and digitally mediated environments. See Chap. 4 for a full explication of the framework and how it is used to analyse the case study performances in this book.

  7. 7.

    Refers to networks such as Internet2 (United States) AARNet (Australia), GÉANT (Europe), Janet (UK), or ORION (Canada).

  8. 8.

    P2P is a system of information exchange between two or more computers in which each computer shares processing power and bandwidth in a network of computers.

  9. 9.

    Refers to a network of computers that draw data from a central server, e.g. online databases, websites, content management systems.

  10. 10.

    Latency describes how long it takes for a packet of data (audio signal) to get from the sender to the receiver and back again. The time it takes for a packet to return to the sender is known as round trip time (RTT), which is how latency is measured.

  11. 11.

    Refers to an online multi-user software interface that allows geographically dispersed performers to connect and play together in real-time. The chosen interface in these performances was the proprietary, subscription based eJAMMING AUDIO which can be downloaded at http://www.ejamming.com/.

  12. 12.

    The definition of liminal refers to being on the threshold of two sides of a boundary.

  13. 13.

    Pragmatism was a Nineteenth Century philosophical tradition emanating from the United States. For more information please visit https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/.

  14. 14.

    The capitalisation of metaphors and image schemas follows Lakoff and Johnson’s original formatting, which continues to be used by scholars in this field.

References

  • Aksnes H (2002) Perspectives of musical meaning: a study based on selected works by Geirr Tveitt. Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Benson BE (2003) The improvisation of musical dialogue: a phenomenology of music. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bilda Z, Candy L, Edmonds E (2007) An embodied cognition framework for interactive experience. CoDesign 3(2):123–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busnel RG, Classe A (2013) Whistled languages. Springer Business and Media, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadoz C (1988) Instrumental gesture and musical composition. Paper presented at the international computer music conference, Cologne, Germany, pp 2–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadoz C, Wanderley MM (2000) Gesture-music. In: Wanderley M, Battier M (eds) Trends in gestural control of music. Ircam, Centre Pompidou, pp 71–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Candy L (2011) Research and creative practice. In: Candy L, Edmonds EA (eds) Interacting: art, research and the creative practitioner. Libri Publishing Ltd, Faringdon, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Carôt A, Kramer U, Schuller G (2006) Network Music Performance (NMP) in narrow band networks. Paper presented at the 120th convention, audio engineering society, Paris, pp 2–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Cienki AJ (1989) Spatial cognition and the semantics of prepositions in English, Polish, and Russian. Verlag Otto Sagner, München

    Google Scholar 

  • Coker W (1972) Musical meaning: a theoretical introduction to musical aesthetics. Collier-MacMillan, Ontario

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook N (1990) Music, imagination, and culture. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Cumming N (2000) The sonic self: musical subjectivity and signification. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey J (1979) Art as experience. Paragon Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ethernet Orchestra: Official website (2010). https://ethernetorchestra.net/. Accessed 21 June 2018

  • Ferguson D (1960) Music as metaphor: the elements of expression. University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallese V (2005) Embodied simulation: from neurons to phenomenal experience. Phenomenol Cogn Sci 4(1):23–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geertz C (1973) Thick description: toward an interpretive theory of culture the interpretation of cultures: selected essays. Basic Books, New York, pp 3–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Godøy RI (2010) Gestural affordances of sound. In: Godøy RI, Leman M (eds) Musical gestures: sound, movement and meaning. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Godøy RI, Leman M (2010) Why study musical gestures. In: Godøy RI, Leman M (eds) Musical gestures: sound, movement and meaning. Routledge, New York, pp 104–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl E (1964) Phenomenology of internal time consciousness (trans: Churchill JS). Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl E (1970) The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: an introduction to phenomenological philosophy. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois

    Google Scholar 

  • Ibarretxe-Antuñano I (2013) The relationship between conceptual metaphor and culture. Intercult Pragmat 10(2):315–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (1987) The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (1991) Knowing through the body. Philos Psychol 4(1):3–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M (2008) The meaning of the body: aesthetics of human understanding. Chicago University Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Kress GR (2010) Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kress GR, Van Leeuwen T (2001) Multimodal discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. Arnold: Oxford University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff G, Johnson M (1980) Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff G, Johnson M (1999) Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson S (2012) Musical Forces: Motion, Metaphor and Meaning in Music. Bloomington and Indiana: Indiana University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty M (1963) The structure of behavior (trans: Fisher AL). Beacon Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty M (2005) Phenomenology of perception (trans: Smith C). Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer J, Dentel L, Seifart F (2012) A methodology for the study of rhythm in drummed forms of languages: Bora of Amazon. Paper presented at the 13th annual conference of the international speech communication association 2012 Proceedings of Interspeech 2012, Portland, USA, pp 686–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills R (2014) Tele-improvisation: a multimodal analysis of intercultural improvisation in networked music performance. Ph.D., University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/31925/1/01front.pdf. Accessed 4 Sept 2018

  • Neisser U (1976) Cognition and reality. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Nettl B (1956) Music in primitive culture. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nöth W (1995) Handbook of semiotics. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis

    Google Scholar 

  • Oakley T (2012) Image schemas. In: Geeraerts D, Cuyckens H (eds) Handbook of cognitive linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Scruton R (1983) The aesthetic understanding: essays in the philosophy of art and culture. St. Augustine’s Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Scruton R (1997) The aesthetics of music. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok TA, Umiker-Sebeok DJ (1976) Speech surrogates: drum and whistle systems. In: Sebeok TA, Umiker-Sebeok DJ (eds) 1 edn. Mouton, The Hague

    Google Scholar 

  • Seifart F, Meyer J (2010) Bora drum communication, the typology of emulated speech, and prosodic typology. Paper presented at the Arbeitsgruppe ‘Prosodic Typology: State of the Art and Future Prospects’ DGfS Jahrestagung, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith AD (2003) Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations. London: New York: Routledge

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern T (1957) Drum and whistle “languages”: an analysis of speech surrogates. Am Anthropol 59(3):487–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarasti E (1994) A theory of musical semiotics. In: Sebeok TA (ed). Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Leeuwen T (1999) Speech, music, sound. Macmillan, Basingstoke

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Van Leeuwen T (2005) Introducing social semiotics. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Leeuwen T (2008) Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson M (2002) Six views of embodied cognition. Psychon Bull Rev 9(4):625–636

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Zbikowski LM (2005) Conceptualizing music: cognitive structure, theory, and analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Zbikowski LM (2012) Metaphor and music. In: Raymond J, Gibbs W (eds) The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 502–524

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Roger Mills

Authors
  1. Roger Mills
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roger Mills .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mills, R. (2019). Intercultural Tele-Improvisation: Inside the Online Global Jam Session. In: Tele-Improvisation: Intercultural Interaction in the Online Global Music Jam Session . Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71039-6_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71039-6_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71038-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71039-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation