TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE
INTEGER (INTErnet GEnerated Radio)
Iber writes:"INTEGER (INTErnet GEnerated Radio) was a live performance broadcast on SWR (South West Broadcast German National Radio) radio in January 2001. The piece was conceived Michael Iber and produced in collaboration with Experimentalstudio für Akustische Kunst e.V.(Experimental Studio of Acoustic Art Association) and SWR2. INTEGER primordially invited its listeners/performers to logon to www.integer-radio.com, choose from a pool of 16 programs and by following a set of rules to trigger with their mouses the flow of music featured in the broadcast. A specially configured server was sending the audience’s clicks to a computer programmed (using mainly Max/MSP and Reaktor) to encode the incoming network media data (UDP) into midi data so as to control and manipulate the playlist. The number of clicks as well as their duration (how much time the mouse button was held down) defined the action to be taken. More specifically if the click lasted: a) for ten seconds the computer would play the desired selection, b) for four seconds, INTEGER would then play the most popular song, c)if more than two clicks happened within four seconds INTEGER would set the audio manipulation mode off.
INTEGER was received with great enthusiasm by the audience. During the 22 minutes of the performance INTEGER counted 35.000 clicks by almost 500 participants. INTErnetGEneratedRadio has managed to create a hybrid form multi-participatory cyber concert by challenging the notion of a standard concert hall performance. It also opened up a series of interesting investigations and discourses including, among other topics, Crowd behaviourism and Crowd Isolation in net based public performance art."