3 Days, 4 international performances, 52 participants from 20 countries and 37 different organisations, out of which 8 NRENs – these are the amazing results of NPAPW24.
Day 1
Hosted by the Lithuanian Academy for Music and Theatre, this year’s event was kickstarted by Justin Trieger, from New World Symphony in Miami with a historical account about performing art and advanced networking, from early 2000s to now. The first continued with some amazing presentations on topics such as MVTP technology, deploying UltraGrid for low-latency transmissions in 4G and 5G mobile networks and telematic tools.
A classical concert (Smetana’s piano trio in G Minor) joining three locations (Prague, Brno and Vilnius) using the newest MVTP 4K audio/video box across CESNET, LITNET and GÉANT.
The first day concluded with a special concert across GÉANT/LITNET/ACOnet/GARR made possible by LOLA, the Low Latency Audio Video application developed by GARR and Conservatorio di Trieste in Italy. Three sites were connected using HD/4K Video streams across 10Gb/s links: Vilnius (Piano, Trumpet, and Saxophone), Vienna (Double bass) and Trieste (Sax, Drums, Trumpets, Voice).
Day 2
The programme of Day 2 started with Renate Kreil (ACOnet) presenting a virtual exhibition and digital project dedicated to Aaron Swartz (https://www.netart.cc/aarons-law/introduction). Claudio Allocchio (GARR) then introduced the new LOLA (lola.conts.it), including multi-sites and moving from specialised to consumer hardware – including Mac M1 and M2.
A practical workshop presenting a specific and artistic use case of emotional response system Posemo. Using an edu meet Posemo implementation they created a musical performance based on sonification data of participant’s emotional feedback and biosensors. Pictured: Jan Skorupa, from PSNC
The day continued with a fascinating presentation by Jan Skorupa from PSNC, on possible synergies between cognitive science (https://www.posemo.io/) and creative arts, followed by a contribution by Matti Ruippo from Tampere University of Applied Sciences, about AI and its role in supporting integrated learning, educator training, fostering multi-disciplinary curricula and new pedagogical approaches.
After the lunch break, the participants were treated to a piece of technology-enhanced street theatre, #streamwalkers, by the Slovenian-based Ana Monro Theatre (https://anamonro.streams4u.eu). The next presentation was about the challenges of art education in Iceland, a place that has the largest number of music school per capita but with clear problems related to isolation.
Participants also loved the Global Jazz Café presented and demonstrated by David Spencer, University of Memphis, in collaboration with HAMU, Prague. David and his fellow musicians brought the audience to Paris in the 1930, with a live jazz trio (Trumpet in Vilnius, Piano and Double bass in Prague), connected using MVTP – a stand-alone, FPGA-based solution developed by CESNET.
The host – LMTA, surprised everyone by treating the participants to a one-of-a-kind 1-star Michelin restaurant dinner.
Day 3
A cross-media live performance with the application of real-time gestural painting for sound manipulation, which consists of a microcomputer, sensing technology, and interactive sound. In the picture: Haruka Hirayama, Hokkaido Information University
The last two performances of NPAPW concluded with a multi-site painting + sonic performance between Lithuania and Japan and a spectacular classical concert (Smetana’s piano trio in G Minor) joining three locations (Prague, Brno and Vilnius) using the newest MVTP 4K audio/video box across CESNET, LITNET and GÉANT.
Overall, the event was full of great performances and presentations, further empowering global arts experts through advanced networking technologies.
