FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2003
New Turbulence Commission: N.A.G. by Jason Freeman
http://turbulence.org/Works/freeman

N.A.G. (Network Auralization for Gnutella) is interactive software art
for Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP that turns the process of searching for
and downloading MP3 files into a chaotic musical collage.

Gnutella is one of the many peer-to-peer file-sharing protocols that
emerged in the wake of Napster. Unlike Napster, there is no central
server and no single company in control. It can be difficult to locate
and download specific music: searches can take a long time to return
results, and downloads sometimes grind to a halt before they can finish.
It was exactly these shortcomings that led Freeman to develop N.A.G.

Essentially, N.A.G. is a simple instrument with which users can "play"
the Gnutella network. N.A.G. continuously checks the status of all
downloading songs and uses their respective download speeds to
prioritize song segments for real-time playback while they download.
Users can control many different aspects of the algorithm, such as how
many songs may play simultaneously, how quickly N.A.G. moves amongst
songs, and whether N.A.G. varies playback speed and volume in proportion
to the download speeds of each song.

BIOGRAPHY

Jason Freeman is a composer and media artist who combines mathematical
structures, musical intuition, and the excitement of live performance
into works which challenge audiences to approach music and sound in new
ways, and which often blur the boundaries between art and technology and
between composer, performer, and listener.

Trained in both computer science and music, Freeman is equally at home
in new music circles, at dot-coms (and Microsoft, where he once worked).
His recent media works have exploited cutting-edge technologies and
complex structural models to create meaningful interactive experiences.

For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org