n0media have been bringing digital artists together to work in a series of monthly performances called WebJams since June 2003.
These performances have taken place in local and national venues, connected by internet technologies.
The artist collaborations that contribute to the WebJams are then re-layed live on the group's website to an international audience.
Decentred is a six week residency at the Norwich Gallery that expands upon the WebJam concept. It will connect artists based in Europe, the US & Canada together, to perform in a real-time virtual environment.
Tom Simmons is the project's programmer:
"During our performances, the artist improvisations of digitally created data is shared between different venues. This data could be audio, video or some type of control information which triggers an event or action within the performance." The artistic focus of Decentred, is to create improvised electronic work that can be viewed both in the Norwich Gallery and on the internet. "In Decentred, the hub of the system that facilitates this activity will be located in the Norwich Gallery," explained Tom. "The really exciting thing, is the organic and unpredictable nature of the performance as you're never quite sure what is going to happen. 
Webjam06: Live puppetry - Claire Gomm, Anita Shukla & n0media |
"Quite often the sharing of artists' data (audio or video) over the internet leads to a loss of what we call 'material intention'. "This is where an event that a performer intends to occur in one venue, changes by the time that event arrives in another venue. "For example, such data might originally be control information timed to an audio or video sequence that 'loses sync' with it's original source during transmission over the internet. "The result of the collaborative activity produced in one venue, is then re-interpreted in another venue. "Part of this process is all about giving up control. The idea of decentering something is about moving it outside of your jurisdiction, about seeing what happens when you have to negotiate events which emerge in that context," he added. The Decentered residency will feature workshops with students from schools throughout Norfolk. The group of artists range from bands, sonic artists & musicians through to performance artists, VJ's, video artists & animators.
An opening performance will take place on Wednesday 17 March at 7pm featuring 2BitTV, n0media, Phil Archer, Andre Bosman and Shigeto Wada. For a full list of the performances taking place throughout the exhibition, visit the Decentred website. | 
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