Artistic telepresence is not new. It is a way of bending network technologies in service to human beings to connect, even at great distances, that leverages economic, time, carbon footprint, and other long-distance travel inconveniences. Yet, technology is not the singular solution to satisfy all the needs that amount to successful human connections. Technology facilitates the pathos of the interactors.

The interactors here are seasoned musicians hacking their way through pipelines of CAT6 and fiberoptic illusions into the open source water draping the soundscapes of the finest moment of this digital landscape. The performance is delivered in a hybrid way. Michał uses his SteamDeck to control waves of wavelets, pulsars and pulsarettes, via IA-assisted mapping of physical gestures to audible sounds, visible light, shifting shadows and other visual magic. On the other hand, Dirk is tele-copresent in some indeterminate space, twelve timezones ahead of us, in the eastern hemisphere. He is playing the FryProne, that he built himself. Michał and Dirk connect by a portal made of network switches and protocols, data over the internets, over the aforementioned CAT6s and fiberoptics. Projectors shoot photons on appropriate surfaces for all to see, and 48000Hz, 24bit audio signals materialize as air pressure fluctuations, for all to hear. Telepæsants surfing the technofeudal lands.

25 June 2025

NIME Conference, Canberra, Australia

25 June 2025

Linux Audio Conference, Lyon, France