Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2012
Historically, network music has explored the practice and theory of interconnectivity, utilising the network itself as a creative instrument. The Machine Orchestra (TMO) has extended this historical idea by developing the custom software suite Signal, and creating a shared, social instrument consisting of musical robotics. Signal is a framework for musical synchronisation and data sharing, designed to support the use of musical robotics in an attempt to more fully address ideas of interconnectivity and embodied performance. Signal, in combination with musical robotics, also facilitates the exploration of interaction contexts, such as at the note level, score level and sound-processing level. In this way, TMO is simultaneously building upon the historical contributions and developing aesthetics of network music.
The authors would like to thank all the computer network ensembles that have laid the foundation on which we have built our research. We would also like to thank Perry Cook, Curtis Bahn, Charlie Burgin, Meason Wiley and Jim Murphy for their exceptional musicianship in realising the pieces described in this article. Additionally, we would like to thank the reviewers at Organised Sound and Rory Vallis for their efforts in helping with the realisation of this article.