Turbulence Commission: “iLib Shakespeare (the perturbed sonnet project)” by Scot Gresham-Lancaster and Tim Perkis

Turbulence Commission: “iLib Shakespeare (the perturbed sonnet project)” by Scot Gresham-Lancaster and Tim Perkis
“iLib Shakespeare (the perturbed sonnet project)” is a social media mashup that uses the dynamic input of users to continuously rewrite a sonnet of William Shakespeare. The user phonetically rhymes a word or short phrase, which is added to the database of variations available to other users. For instance “unhappily forsworn” can be rhymed as “so snappily untorn.” Each time the page is loaded, a different selection of user-defined substitutions is used. A transposed midi version of “Lachrimae” or “Seven Tears,” by John Dowland (1563-1626), can be heard as well, with “perturbations” that increase as the sonnet text is modified.
“iLib Shakespeare (the perturbed sonnet project)” is a 2013 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for its Turbulence.org website. It was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
BIOGRAPHIES
Scot Gresham-Lancaster is a composer, performer, instrument builder and educator. He is an Associate Professor of Sound Design at ATEC UT Dallas where he researches multimodal representations (the relationship of sonified and visualized data sets). As a member of the HUB, he was an early pioneer of “computer network music.” Scot has created a series of “co-located” international Internet performances with music and dance. He has developed many “cellphone operas” and developed audio for games and other interactive products. He is also an expert in educational technology. Scot remains committed to a future in which Art and Science synergize each other. http://about.me/scotgl
Tim Perkis has been working in live electronic and computer sound for many years, performing, exhibiting installation works, and recording in North America, Europe and Japan. His work has largely been concerned with exploring the emergence of life-like properties in complex systems of interaction. In addition, he is a well known performer in the world of improvised music, having performed on his electronic improvisation instruments with hundreds of artists and groups, including Chris Brown, John Butcher, Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith, Gianni Gebbia, Frank Gratkowski, Luc Houtkamp, Yoshi Ichiraku, Matt Ingalls, Joelle Leandre, Gino Robair, ROVA saxophone quartet, Elliott Sharp, Leo Wadada Smith and John Zorn. Ongoing groups he has founded or played in include the League of Automatic Music Composers and the HUB — pioneering live computer network bands — and Rotodoti, the Natto Quartet, Fuzzybunny, All Tomorrow’s Zombies and Wobbly/Perkis/Antimatter. http://www.perkis.com/_site/about/index.html