Network Gyre

 Network Gyre was my first attempt at composing a toporhythmic network music performance. It was performed once between the University of Calgary and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and once between the University of Calgary and Montana State University. The recording is from a performance between two locations on the University of Calgary campus. 

The term “gyre” refers to any spiral or vortex, in this piece it specifically refers to a system of ocean currents called the “North Pacific Gyre”. Each section of the piece corresponds to one of the four currents that travel back and forth between North America and Asia. The tempo is derived from the audio signal’s round trip time between Calgary and Beijing over a high speed research network (as of 2014). This latency creates the possibility for bi-located rhythms wherein different patterns are heard in each performance site.

Publication about the piece in the proceedings from the International Computer Music Conference: Network Gyre - Exercising the Network's Rhythmic Potential