"Jamming Across Space and Time: Teleimprovisation 30 Years before Zoom"

Are the experiences of performing live virtually and in analog mutually substitutable? What is lost as a result of mediation? What is gained? How performers can take advantage of the tele-interaction? These and other questions arise for anyone who attempts to be creative with other people remotely in live format. Yet, while taking advantage of the possibility to easily connect with people all over the globe to compose and perform, most of us are missing the “authentic” in-person experience. What is the authenticity that makes the analog performance more rewarding and satisfactory than the remote? Is there a way to turn mediation to our advantage?
Rather than looking down to the past technology as obsolete, we propose to look at what teleperformance was like in the pre-Zoom era. 30 years ago the possibility to jam live across time and space was a cutting-edge practice that required days of preparation and hours of set up as well as embracing the risk that something would not work. Yet, there’s something to learn from the past practice when technology wasn’t commodified/instantaneously available to a general user.
The video-phone technology (Galloway & Rabinowitz) and computerized instruments with remote control (Yamaha Disclavier) were the key elements of a teleperformance. Watching the ’92 improvisation of two pioneers of experimental music, Terry Riley (Nice, France) and David Rosenboom (Electronic Cafe International, Santa Monica), across time and space we aspire to understand how performers navigated telepresence decades ago and how it impacted their creative practice. The ultimate question concerns the tension between art-making, associated with feeling/affective experience, and disembodying technology, which requires rationality and precision. Is there a way to get around these dichotomies?
Attendees are invited to join an introductory lecture followed by the screening of not previously publicly available recording of the 1992 teleimprovisation, and share their impressions of jamming in the pre-Zoom era.
This event is taking place as a part of Victoria Vesna’s Spring ’24 class “Introduction to Art, Science, and Technology.” Arranged by the Art|Sci Center at UCLA, the event is open to public and will be live streamed.

More info: https://www.dublab.com/events/111715/jamming-across-space-and-time-telei...
Time: 12pm PDT
Location: UCLA Broad Art Center, EDA (Experimental Digital Arts)
240 Charles E Young Dr N,
Los Angeles, CA 90095

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