Corby & Baily

What is you project and your work about?

Loop_reprise is an mp3 player that plays different versions of a single
well known song. The project cross-links a number of old and new cultural tendencies. From the classical avant-garde, it acknowledges the history of appropriation of the vernacular (Duchamp etc.), and the use of the repetitious unit as a formal device (minimalism), and from digital multimedia
it connects the use of sampling to an older tradition of the 'cover version' from popular music. Rather than (interactively) allowing users to remix or,re-author sound samples, the project takes a number of different versions of the same song and plays them sequentially as a series of repetitive units.

By looping the same song through its different manifestations, the project enables us to experience the individual songs anew as a singular entity; a collection of individuated/granular parts experienced as whole.

How long have you been working in this area?

8yrs

Were you an artist/ musician first who got into using computers/the net or did you respond to the net in an artistic way?

artist first

What/ who has influenced you in your work? (themes, other artists etc)

Duchamp, Sol Le witt, IOD, Knowbotics research, Mark Napier,

Are there any other artists covering the same field as you?

Do you see this work as art?
Yes

With regard to 'soundtoys' especially, why do you think the audio visual metaphor is so key to the net?

It increases perceptual bandwidth...I don't know if this is a key aspect, but it certainly makes things interesting...

What defines the aesthetics of new interactive music?

complexity, connectivity, hybridity

How important is the visual aspect in the 'new' relationship of the audio visual.?

Very....the users perception/experience of a work that includes hi-res graphics with low sampled sound is still generally good. the inverse is the case with poor quality or low res graphics and good/high sample range for the sound.

Does the net promotes visual awareness that is unique to it?

Yes of course, in the sense that it introduces a behavioural dimension to the image, and thus complicates/expands the users perceptual relationship to the image, via interaction and connectivity (user to users & user to agents)

How novel do you feel generative music and interactivity is?

Well, you can find many non-computer based precedents if you look for them...so in this sense generative/interactive artefacts aren't novel per se. but computer supported interactivity offers many as yet unexplored possibilities.

Do you think there is a history to audio visual work?

yes (see above), a brief list would have to include the examples of the Gesamtkunstwerk 19th century, expanded art practice (dada, fluxux, happenings, performance and environmental work) 20th century, and too many others to mention.

Would you describe yourself as a multimedia artist, a net.artist, programmer, or none of the above?

non of the above....an artist who uses new media technologies.

What software do you use most and why?

varies....currently, director, flash, open gl/C++

On a more personal level why do you make this work?

To explore the new creative possibilities offered by new media, and contribute something to the area. I/we are particularily interested in questioning much of the hype surrounding interactive media, by adopting a criticial attitude toward new media.


Can you recommend three urls to soundtoys?

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/
http://www.detritus.com/
http://www.spero.org

Tom Corby/Gavin Baily

http://www.reconnoitre.net/