Telemidi
Exchanging MIDI (music performance data) over the Internet to enable the co-creation of music by remote collaborators, in real-time.
Telemidi is Telematic Music Performance (TMP), it enables musicians to co-create music by simultaneously exchanging MIDI data over the Internet. Connecting over the Internet introduces a significant latency (delay) issue to disrupt the delicate timing nuance of live musical performance. Latency is a monolithic obstacle for TMP performance.
Matt Bray’s PhD research revealed a suite of Latency Accepting Solutions (LAS) used to facilitate musical synchronicity between remote collaborators. Collaborators build and exchange musical ideas, they improvise using pre-composed motifs and voices (Comprovising), regardless of the distance between them. This enhances the Telepresence experienced by collaborators, a sense that they are sharing the ‘same space’ as each other, where ideas can be exchanged as freely as if improvising on instruments in the same room.
Matt Bray
Musical Background
Matt has operated as a professional musician (drummer, singer, guitarist, MIDI ctrl.) since 1996; playing over 3,300 gigs and 170+ registered compositions [including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and credits on an Australian Top 40 album and Top 20 single]. Using MIDI technologies in live performance since 1998 (Roland V-Drums), Matt developed a range of methods to incorporate digital technologies for live music performance.
Genres explored include rock [punk, progressive] blues, funk, acid jazz, dub reggae, drum and bass, electronica, EDM, orchestral and experimental.
Highlights include the performance of Jazz-Latin Overtones by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1994, collaborating with Carl Cox for the 2021 soundtrack for Venom II, being a composer/performer for top 40 album Extremist Makeover (28-Days) in 2004, and the top 100 iTunes rock album Beautiful in Danger by middle eastern progressive rock outfit Jericco in 2013. Matt has toured EU and Australia extensively.
Progression to Telemidi
Matt founded K-Oscillate in 2001, spending nine years performing live Drum&Bass, to develop a complex, hybrid acoustic/electronic environment.
This detailed LAN / DAW set up evolved into a dub reggae, grid-based composition platform (Phantom Hitmen: 2014), wherein the idea of connecting two systems over the Internet became a focus for exploration.
In the new millennia, Matt has invested increasing amounts of energy into developing performance environments for networked DAW infrastructures. Coupled with Higher Education lecturing since 2007, research into this technology for popular music genres has been a motivating factor.
Bernardo Varela
Artistic Background
Bernardo Varela is a multidisciplinary artist exploring activations of mental imagery through ambiguous audiovisual stimuli.
Working with digital and situated experiences, his practice investigates elements of experimental psychology combining audio scene analysis, motion perception and the brain’s capacity to create meaning from noise.
“Aesthetic experiences can lead ourselves to question the way we perceive our immediate surroundings. I’m interested in the power of human perception to readapt itself, especially when everyday stimuli, like background noise, can be perceived as something meaningful and extraordinary.”
Coming from an extensive experience in visual effects, he passionately incorporated sound design and field recordings to his practice during his Masters in Design for Performance and Interaction at UCL in 2019.
Born in Brazil and based in Barcelona, Bernardo started experimenting with connections between sounds, motion and light in the early 2000’s with Moleculagem, a brazilian collective of artists committed to exploring the possibilities of mixing art, video, music and technology, designing audiovisual and live performances.