Internet2 (I2) is an initiative including over 180 universities, multiple network service providers, and a number of middleware and protocol development efforts all working towards the invention of the next generation Internet. Internet2 presents artists with the possibility of connectivity that enables the production values they've long taken for granted in recording studios, sound stages, and post-production editing suites.

Internet2 has established a new medium for the performing arts. Musicians, actors, dancers, and other artists can perform and interact across multiple sites, and present a real-time shared multimedia experience for audiences at remote locations. To this end, I2 technologies must be carefully adapted for the unique needs of artistic performance. In addition, artists must rethink and adapt their traditional methods to the I2 medium.

NYU is a charter member of the Internet2 initiative. From the outset, the Arts Technology Group of Academic Computing Services has worked with interested faculty and departments to exploit and explore this exciting new technology. As artists with technical expertise, we have provided a systems integration function for all NYU Internet2 performances to date, along with the close help and cooperation of ITS Network Services.

This article briefly presents two recent Internet2-based performance events, as well as a related event using older ISDN-based video conference technology. Faculty and researchers working in the performing arts interested in exploring Internet2 are invited to take note of the related article in this issue entitled "How Can I Create an Internet2 Performing Arts Event?", and to contact the author.

Figure 2. A scene from the NYU side of "The Technophone & the Madman".

Billed as the first Internet2 live distributed musical, "The Technophobe & The Madman" was performed at NYU in the Loewe Theatre and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on February 20, 2001 (see Figure 1). The work was commissioned by Harvestworks (www.harvestworks.org) with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. The funding was initially secured by then Arts Technology Group member, and now Temple University faculty member, Sarah Drury.

The stages at RPI in Troy, New York and NYU in New York City were connected with six channels of full quality video and twelve channels of CD-quality audio. This allowed performers on both stages to be seen and heard by the audiences at both sites. Each stage had three large video projection screens serving as backdrops, and presenting the performers at the far site as they interacted with the performers on stage (see figure 2).

Tyrone Henderson, as the madman, was the central character and singer on the NYU stage, while Maya Azucena played the part of the technophobe at RPI. Exploring themes of desire, alienation and hope in an increasingly technologically complex culture, "The Technophobe & The Madman" has garnered national attention with significant coverage in publications such as The New York Times, The Village Voice, and Wired. The musical was created by a large team, including composers Robert Rowe (NYU), Nick Didkovsky (NYU), and Neil Rolnick (RPI), video artist Don Ritter, writers Quimetta Perle and Tyrone Henderson, and director Valeria Vasilevski.

Internet2 not only provided the network environment for the actual performance, but also provided the connectivity that was used to develop and rehearse the large-scale multimedia piece. In addition, commodity Internet tools such as websites, e-mail, and the like were critically important, allowing close and frequent collaboration despite the 160-mile distance between Troy and New York City.

Figure 3. At NYU, actors performed "Taming of the Sun: A Polynesian Creation Story".

On June 18, 2001, a team of collaborators at NYU and Indiana University presented a multi-site session as part of The 11th Annual International Computer Music Tech-nology Conference and Workshop. This session was the latest event in a series of network-based collaborations with Indiana University that started in the previous year.

The audience at the Indiana-Purdue University campus in Indianapolis experienced a spirited performance by Tom Beyer (percussion), Wendy Luck (flute and vocals), and Drew Waters (bass) at NYU and Jack Gilfoy (percussion) in Indiana. This was preceded and followed by comments and observations from session organizers John Gilbert (NYU) and Fred Rees (IUPUI). Of particular interest in this session was the technical issue of network latency, and how it must be taken into account by the composers and performers.

As Professor Gilbert noted while reflecting on the performance:

In music of the past, music in cathedrals also had a kind of latency problem in the delay of sound. This affected the way music was composed and structured, including the elaborate antiphonal schemes that emerged. Certainly, we can incorporate the phenomenon of latency into the performance. This was handled beautifully in 'The Technophobe & The Madman'.

Many of the structural schemes developed for the Cassandra and Orpheus projects (Dinu Ghezzo, John Gilbert, Alistair Martin-Smith, Lisa Naugle, et al.) have included latency as part of the content. Precise rhythmic ideas become one-way transmissions. Two-way-plus transmissions allow for slippage so that textures are emphasized over rhythmic precision.

Additional information about this project is available at: www.nyu.edu/classes/gilbert/distance/.

Figure 4. Participants at York University and Bergen University.

Professor Alistair Martin-Smith organized a three-way performance and discussion for presentation at The Fourth World Congress of the International Drama Education Association on July 6, 2001. Working with Martin-Smith were faculty co-presentors Belarie Zatzman (York University, Toronto, Canada), Steinar Topland (Bergen University, Bergen, Norway) and Helen Grosso (NYU).

Martin-Smith, of NYU's Program in Educational Theatre, hosted the session, which presented several live performances and a short film. In each case, student actors and writers presented a traditional creation story while exploring performance using technology spanning two continents and three countries. Due to the bandwidth constraints at York University, traditional ISDN-based video conference technology was used rather than Internet2.

Working with adolescent actors, Professors Martin-Smith and Grosso directed "Taming of the Sun: A Polynesian Creation Story" (see figure 3). This was performed for an audience at NYU's Black Box Theatre in Pless Hall as well as to audiences in Toronto and Bergen via transmission. Similarly, Professor Zatzman directed college students in "The Divine Woman Who Fell From the Sky: A Huron Creation Story". Finally, Professor Topland's college students presented a Norse creation story in the form of the short film "The Theft of Thor's Hammer" (see figure 4).

As much a workshop as a formal performance, Martin-Smith then led the audiences at all three sites in a discussion of the commonalities of concerns and themes in the creation stories from these diverse cultures, as well as the experience of performing in a networked event.

In terms of technology, ISDN-based video conferencing is interesting to compare to emerging Internet2 alternatives. ISDN video conferencing is certainly more ubiquitous and provides a way to interoperate between differing video standards, such as NTSC, used in the U.S. and PAL, used in Norway. However, Internet2 provides a very neutral path for video and audio, whereas video conferencing equipment is optimized for panel discussions and the like. Artists using Internet2 can control all aspects of the presentation, but most video conferencing equipment switches camera views based on which sound source is active. In addition, the sound and video quality of Internet2 connections can be much better than that obtained with ISDN-based video conference technology.

More information on this event is available at: www.yorku.ca/bzatzman/idea2001/4150.html.

Like all emerging technologies, Internet2 will become easier to use and more ubiquitous over time, and the associated hardware and software will drop in price. For now, Internet2 is not a simple off the shelf "plug and play" technology, but at NYU we've been able to demonstrate that a collaborative team can make tomorrow's technology available to artists today. Whether one is interested in large-scale, highly finished productions like "The Technophobe & The Madman" or participatory workshops like the Indiana and Bergen events, ideas and project proposals for live Internet2 events are most welcome and practical now at NYU. For questions and considerations you should take under advisement when planning an Internet2 project, please see the related article "What Can Internet2 Do For Me?".

Previous NYU performing arts events via Internet2 have included:

Audio Engineering Society--September 1999 In collaboration with McGill University, a live swing band performance was sent from Toronto to the Cantor Film Center via video and Dolby Digital Surround Sound. For more information see the Spring 2000 edition of Connect at: www.nyu.edu/its/pubs/connect/archives/00spring/galantermusic.html

ITP Performance Art Class--Spring 2000 Sarah Drury's students in the TSOA Interactive Telecommunications Program worked with Massachusetts Institute of Technology artist-in-residence Ellen Zweig and her students in Boston to create networked performance art. For more information see: http://astro.temple.edu/~sdrury/internet2performance/

Internet2 National Member Meeting--October 2000 NYU participated with a number of other sites to demonstrate a "National Distributed Recording Studio" creating a CD in multiple passes for a live audience. For more information see: {http://www.internet2.edu/html/fall00rialto.html} Replacement URL: http://arts.internet2.edu/fall00rialto.html.

Association for Technology in Music Instruction--November 2000 NYU Professor John Gilbert worked with Professor Fred Rees at Indiana University and musicians at both schools to perform together using audio and video over Internet2. For more information see: www.nyu.edu/classes/gilbert/distance/