MATRIZ

MATRIZ is a programming and creative proposal that intends to launch new challenges and paradigms related to the digital radio context, questioning and experimenting with new ways of doing radio in the twenty-first century.

This project started development on collaborative software that allows to manage multiple audio connections and its relations throughout the internet, by creating new geographies and allowing new areas of relationship between artists and audience.

It was a starting point to research the potential of a networked creative expression and also to design decentralization strategies and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Due to its potential for questioning univocal relationship between creators and audiences, digital radio is a privileged medium for this experiment.
Throughout this project several themes were deepened, such as creative software, digital radio, networking music, artistic communities and physical/digital auditorium.

In this context, music was the artistic practice chosen to experiment with the MATRIZ software. The articulation between network connected musicians and the multiple combinations and interactions between the different physical places of presentation and listening spaces on the Internet were tested with a collectively written musical piece.

This project included two artistic residencies – one of them at Oficinas do Convento, in Montemor-o-Novo, and the other at Sonoscopia, in Porto – that worked as research, creation and collaboration labs. It concluded with a public presentation of the musical piece created throughout the duration of the project, occurring simultaneously in three geographical locations (Porto, Montemor-o-Novo and Lisboa).

After completion of this project, Matriz software aims to be a tool open to the national and international artistic communities.

CONCERTS

MONTEMOR-O-NOVO | PORTO | LISBOA :: 15 APRIL 2016

OFICINAS DO CONVENTO :: MONTEMOR-O-NOVO
João Bastos :: circuit bending
João Sofio :: circuit bending
Rodolfo Pimenta :: circuit bending
Tiago Fróis :: circuit bendin

SONOSCOPIA :: PORTO
Gustavo Costa :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects
Henrique Fernandes :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects

PALÁCIO SINEL DE CORDES :: LISBOA
Nuno Torres :: alto sax
Ricardo Jacinto :: cello + electronics

Filipe Quaresma :: announcer

Cláudio Rego :: software designer
Hugo Martiniano :: software designer
Vasco Pita :: software designer

After a cycle of residencies that led to the creation of a collaborative software and to the development of a set of practices and strategies in the field of network music, took place the final presentation of the project MATRIZ.
In this event, in April 15th 2016, two main challenges in the areas of music and radio were undertaken, still in exploratory process:
To create a performance situation that joined three groups of musicians distributed through three cities (Montemor-o-Novo, Porto e Lisboa) that managed to maintain a dimension of immersion and collaboration, given the distance between the ensemble.
To create a closer relation with the radio audience through a browser interface composed of three volume faders, each of them representing one of the cities where the musicians were . This way the audience could define their own listening experience and, consequently, their own path through the performance.

SONOSCOPIA :: PORTO :: 28 FEBRUARY 2016

ROOM 1
João Bastos :: circuit bending
João Sofio :: circuit bending
Rodolfo Pimenta :: circuit bending
Tiago Fróis :: circuit bending

ROOM 2
Nuno Torres :: alto sax
Ricardo Jacinto :: cello + electronics

ROOM 3
Gustavo Costa :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects
Henrique Fernandes :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects

OFICINAS DO CONVENTO :: MONTEMOR-O-NOVO :: 26 JANUARY 2016

ROOM 1
João Bastos :: circuit bending
João Sofio :: circuit bending
Rodolfo Pimenta :: circuit bending
Tiago Fróis :: circuit bending

ROOM 2
Nuno Torres :: alto sax
Ricardo Jacinto :: cello + electronics

ROOM 3
Gustavo Costa :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects
Henrique Fernandes :: acoustic laptop + amplified objects

CODE

Between November of 2015 and May of 2016 the first version of the MATRIZ software was developed, allowing three groups of geographically parted musicians/sound artists to play as an ensemble and in real time. Three tests were done, with the musicians a few meters apart (in the same building, in three separate rooms, sharing the same ethernet connection) and with distancies between them of 150Km to 400Km (Montemor-o-Novo / Porto / Lisboa, via internet connection.)

Along the residencies, the various software testing situations lead to new understandings of its musical and broadcast possibilities:
> compositional possibilities involving the interaction between the three rooms were tried out – taking the latencies of the system into account or controlling who could hear whom during the performance;
> The software also allowed multiple listening possibilities, either for the online or the local audiences, through various sound routing options (stereo mix of the whole ensemble; three stereo signals from the three rooms; etc.) For the online audience an interface was created on the stress.fm website consisting of three volume faders, each corresponding to a transmitting city. This way the online audience could set it’s listening options and, thus, it’s route through the performances.

In order to continue the experiments carried out during this project, all the code of the first version of the MATRIZ software is entirely available, open to the artistic community: http://github.com/stressfm/matriz

TEAM

DIRECTION
Filipe Quaresma
Nuno Torres

TECHNICAL TEAM
Cláudio Rego | Web Design
Filipe Quaresma | Graphic Design
José Alberto Gomes | Consultant

PARTNERS & SUPPORT

PROMOTER
Stress.fm

PARTNERS
Oficinas do Convento
OSSO
Sonoscopia
Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa
Digitópia – Casa da Música
Câmara Municipal de Montemor-o-Novo

FINANCED BY
Direção Geral das Artes