Static graphic imagery and text aren't the only medium available on the Internet. Sound, and in particular, music has had an enormous presence on the Net. There are dozens of archives where sheet music and chords are available for downloading. There are hundreds of downloadable files containing sound samples for all systems including au files that can play on the Sun /dev/audio device. Sophisticated tools that browse the Web can play sounds embedded in a document in the same manner they display images. A new site named Cirque de la MAMA (http://lancet.mit.edu/cirque/introduction.html) is a multimedia and multidisciplined showcase area. Artists who contribute to this site make use of combined sounds and imagery.
Full-scale compositions are stored as MPEG files, a fairly lossless form of compression. One of the most interesting applications for music is NetJam, a program developed largely by Craig Latta (finger latta@xcf.berkeley.edu for one of the most amusing and interesting, if not longest .plan files I have seen). NetJam allows a virtual real-time jam session between musicians in remote locations. A synchronization server times the information so that the musicians do, in effect, interact real-time. There are also archives of existing compositions where a user can work in a ones-own-time frame. NetJam information files and program documentation are available via FTP at xcf.berkeley.edu /pub/misc/netjam.
Video is emerging on the Net as well. There are several sources of video clip files and software for working with video. Programs such as CU-SeeMe allow real-time video conferencing across the network. This software (for Mac and PC) is publicly available via Gopher or FTP at gated.cornell.edu. A video artist online not only can present work to be viewed by others but also can interact with several other video artists through the use of reflectors.
No comments:
Post a Comment