PORT: Navigating Digital Culture Organized by a r t n e t w e b MIT List Visual Arts Center January 25 through March 29, 1997

PROJECT DESCRIPTION "turbulence" is a live audio mix that includes voice, instruments, tapes and live audio feeds from remote locations (Japan and Austria). The composition centers around the idea of turbulence. "turbulence" will be fed to computers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) List Visual Arts Center. The MIT computers will serve as sound instruments, providing user control over the audio mix in the Center. Internet users will be able to access two of the feeds and play them singly, or, if they have two computers, as a stereo piece. Among the artists contributing to "turbulence" are composer/performer Nick Didkovsky of the band Doctor Nerve, performing artist and writer Brenda Nielson, writer and composer Helen Thorington, and composer Brooks Williams. Over the nine week period, the composition begun by the four New York artists will enlarge and change as new performers join in. Taped parts will be revised to include improvised materials from earlier sessions, so that new artists can perform with materials contributed live in earlier weeks. The mix will be fed from el NET and Harmonic Ranch studio in New York City as RealAudio feeds.

HELEN THORINGTON HELEN THORINGTON is a writer and composer, whose interests until recently have focused on radio as a creative medium. The composer of numerous radio compositions for national and international distribution, including commissions for RAI (Italian radio); RNE (Spanish Radio) ; and ORF (Austrian radio), Thorington has also composed sound scores for installations and films that have appeared in the Berlin Film Festival and the Whitney Museum of American Art's Biennial Exhibitions. Recently she has created text and sound compositions for the new media.These include North Country, distributed in 1995/96 on radio and CD-ROM and adapted in 1996 for the World Wide Web. Thorington is the executive producer of New Radio and Performing Arts' World Wide Web site (http://www.somewhere.org) which launched in February 1996. "somewhere" includes the TURBULENCE site, where one can hear, see and participate in artists' works created especially for the web. She is also the originator and executive producer of NEW AMERICAN RADIO, the only national weekly series of radio works commissioned from artists nationwide (1989-present). NICK DIDKOVSKY NICK DIDKOVSKY is a guitarist, composer, and computer music programmer. In 1983, Didkovsky founded the avant-garde rock septet Doctor Nerve, which has released five CD's on Cuneiform Records. His current project, a new composition for Doctor Nerve and the Sirius String Quartet, was commissioned by The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The Jerome Foundation, and will premiere at the FIMAV Festival in Victoriaville, Quebec, in May 1997. Didkovsky is also a member of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet. He composes for a variety of other ensembles, including the Bang On A Can All-Stars, and the Steve Schick/Maya Beiser duo. Didkovsky presently resides in New York City. BRENDA NIELSON BRENDA NIELSON is a performance artist and writer. Her first feature film, Out of the Blue, directed by Dennis Hopper, enjoyed world-wide release and was selected for competition in the Cannes Film Festival. Her screenplay, Deadly Pursuit is in development, and The Revolting Mistress will be produced by Triptych Media, Toronto and has been invited for consideration by the Sundance Feature Film Lab. Nielson has worn several theatrical hats as writer, director, actor, choreographer, and songwriter. She has also collaborated with several music artists as lyricist and librettist, including including John Oswald of "Plunderphonics" fame. She co-directed diva Shelley Hirsch in her performance work and toured with her in Northern Europe. Nielson is a founding member of Manhattan Art Project (M.A.P) developing installation and performance projects, notably the well-received Corner Office (1994) in Wall Street. Nielson currently resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn with her son, Benjamin. BROOKS WILLIAMS BROOKS WILLIAMS has worked for the last sixteen years creating music for film, television, dance and live performance. In 1982, with Charlie Mendoza and Beo Morales, he formed the performance trio, History of Unheard Music. For five years they performed in New York and Europe and released three albums. In 1992, Morales and Williams scored, designed and mixed the sound for David Blair's award-winning cult film, "Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees", the first film to be broadcast over the Internet. In 1993 Williams received the "Best Use of Sound" award from the Canadian International Film Festival for the short film, "Robert Manhole In 1994, he was nominated for a British Academy Award for Best Sound for the documentary "Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and their Johns", directed by Beeban Kidron. Among Brooks' more recent accomplishments is the music and sound design for Michel Negroponte's Emmy award winning 1996 documentary "Jupiter's Wife".

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