Author: Billy Cassidy, Third Year, Computer Science

Amount Requested: $14,080

 

The power of space over the human psyche—the way that the colors, shapes and smells of a room or landscape can instantaneously move a person to a place of peace or fear, excitement or boredom all before their first conscious impression of their surroundings has gelled—is considerable.  This subconscious bias imposed upon human experience by the five senses is of particular interest in the area of musical performance and creation, to which anyone ever compelled to hum on a beautiful spring day or to keep quiet on a rainy one can attest. Certainly there may be those who will hum on either day, but it is the opinion of this author that this only serves to prove the point: that our surroundings predispose us to certain kinds and amounts of emotional expression

 

Those interested in creating music, either for a living or for pleasure, will if given the choice, retreat to places of emotional security before beginning writing. This security may not necessarily bring with it any feeling of peace or happiness or anything else, just a source inspiration over which they can assert a modicum of control. This control, a somewhat nebulous and fleeting thing, is tied to the physical space surrounding the artist in much the same way that the emotions described in the preceding paragraph are connected to the landscape or weather conditions.  If a great song is written in someone’s living room commemorating the relief they feel from returning home after being a month away, that performance is going to be a sort of fingerprint of that room and that feeling.  The task of reproducing the complex intertwining of inspiring emotions in a foreign environment, such as a sound booth in a remote studio seems a lost cause.  A very close replication of the performance can be made as the artist strives to remember the inspiring feeling, but perhaps a part of the original expression is lost in the recording.

 

I am proposing a software system that allows creators and performers of music to participate in informal and formal sessions across a distributed computer network in real-time. In full operation, this client/server set would permit a recording artist sitting in his kitchen to interactively write, edit and record tracks with other band members or producer’s aids across the world.  The musical space of the planet would shrink to the size of one’s home office or screened porch, providing a front-row seat to great performances or recording sessions from the comfort one’s favorite couch.