Common Virtual Ground: Rensselaer Students Will Perform Online With Their California Counterparts

Students at Rensselaer are collaborating a coast apart with their California counterparts in an Internet-based performance that pushes the limits of broadband musical and video performance.

Using the ultra-high-speed Internet2 (I2) to carry the action simultaneously in real time, 10 dancers, singers, and electronic musicians from Rensselaer and Mills College will perform in the same virtual space while in two separate locations. The performance, free to the public, will take place online http://o-art.org/peerings on Tuesday, April 29, at 6 to 8 p.m., EST. It also can be seen live on Rensselaer’s campus in room 174 of the Darrin Communications Center (simultaneously at Cal State, where the Mills students will be performing).

“The students are interacting as face to face while a thousand miles apart and have rehearsed from their respective locations,” says Brian Lonsway, Rensselaer assistant professor of architecture. “Their coming together is possible because of continuing advances in computer technology and broadband, specifically I2, the sophisticated network that transmits high-quality audio and video with almost no delay.”

Lonsway is collaborating on the performance, titled “Peerings,” with Pauline Oliveros, Rensselaer research professor of arts, and her four art students. The I2 connection will be facilitated by Scot Gresham-Lancaster, director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Immersive Technology at California State University, Hayward (Cal State).

Lonsway’s architecture students, Chi Yeng Shen and Scott McGinley, are “building” the abstract, three-dimensional design of shapes and colors for the virtual performance site, called the Synthetic Space Environment (SSE). The SSE, developed by Lonsway, allows performers in separate locations to interact in real time with each other and with the computer-generated design. The merging of the set design with live performers is based on the same technique that makes it seem like the local weather forecaster is standing in front of an animated map when she’s really standing in front of a blank blue screen.

“Peerings” Into Culture
The theme for “Peerings” is a familiar one—preserving culture. Rensselaer student Mimi Hammani and Mills student vocalist Anne Hege will engage in “throat singing,” a traditional vocal game played by Eskimo women. Hammani and Hege, each in a cloth, womb-like enclosure, will stand face-to-face (virtually) alternating various sounds. The idea is instant repetition of pitches and other sounds without mistakes or hesitation. Rensselaer student Doug Van Nort and Mills student Tadashi Usami will perform drones, buzzing, and other sounds on their laptops to complement the women’s “singing.” Meanwhile, Jen Mesch from Rensselaer will dance with Mills student Penny Hutchinson.

“This is a tricky vocal nuance to achieve when two singers are physically facing each other. The fact that these two singers are on two separate coasts displays how far broadband has come in transcending sound, time, and distance to deliver information,” Oliveros says.