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Network Music Festival will also feature an installation piece called Leech, which is one of Curtis's own creations. Harnessing BitTorrent downloads as data; the piece reveals the look and sound of piracy, using the actual music being pirated as a new musical composition.
Curtis says, “I began thinking about alternative methods of using networks in music. Almost everyone I know pirates music, including myself and many other musicians. I often hear about how we should support musicians by buying their albums from the same people who pirate music themselves! It's a strange dichotomy that no one wants to talk about”, he says. “I decided that it would be interesting to tackle the issue the one way I know how, through music and sound itself.........................
“ALMOST EVERYBODY I KNOW PIRATES MUSIC, INCLUDING MYSELF AND MANY OTHER MUSICIANS” - CURTIS MCKINNEY
ing chaotic structures, often through the usage of recursion and feedback. These pieces can be extremely surprising, and often feel more like herding wild beasts than actually performing music....................................... “At their best, the pieces produce results I'm not sure we could have ever derived in any other fashion”, he says. “When this occurs in performance, it's like a gift from Azathoth [a supreme being in the Cthulhu Mythos and Dream Cycle stories of H.P. Lovecraft].................................................. “On the other hand, sometimes the system just won't comply, and just produces boring or painful results. Worst-case scenario is a fatal technical glitch that brings the performance to a halt. However, I consider this to be a boon”, he says.
“To accomplish this, I set out to sonify the BitTorrent traffic of an actual act of music piracy. Gathering the data involves using Packet Sniffing [a piece of computer hardware that intercepts and logs traffic passing over a digital network] in combination with Geo IP location, and data mining a BitTorrent client........... “By using this information, I am able to plot all the individuals involved in a particular torrent onto a global map, to both visualise and sonify the pirated data that is being uploaded and downloaded................................................. “Simultaneously, I use the pirated songs themselves as a musical resource for effects processing as they download onto my computer”, explains Curtis.
Glitch Lich welcome anybody with an open mind to come and see their performance at Network Music Festival. “As long as people listen actively and critically, I am happy................ “If they react by buying the band a round and having a friendly chat about what the heck just happened, that would be optimal, though not required”, he jokes. And what are Curtis's and Glitch Lich's plans for the future? “We want to be the first organisation to design human eradicating AI, in hope that perhaps they will be more forgiving to us”, he says. “We are also currently researching how to more intimately involve beer in our performance practice. And I personally plan on creating more installation pieces that are illegal in at least one country.” The group certainly knows how to push barriers! Glitches by Antonio Roberts By Ross Cotton