I've been putting together a page of links, recently, to works of
interactive audio for the Web; the links are at http://vispo.com/misc/ia.htm
. There are 37 annotated links to work by artists from 16 countries. The
works date from around 1997, when Shockwave came out, to the present. Some
reflections, below, after having put the links together. And many thanks to
Regina Celia Pinto for having done the graphics on the links page and at
http://vispo.com/misc/iad.htm , where the below writing is published.

ja

INTERACTIVE AUDIO FOR THE WEB

Interactive audio works for the Web are for the world. This is how most
people will experience interactive audio works. Not in museums or galleries,
but at home on their computer screen surfing the Web, possibly with their
speakers hooked up to their stereo or with headphones or with small speakers
as monitor 'ears'. In the same space they do their work on the computer,
play computer games, listen to audio of many types, watch videos, and so
forth.

Interactive audio works combine many of these activities. They tend to be
like computer games in that you play using the mouse and/or keyboard. And
sometimes they invite compositional activity, invite the player to produce
something. Sort of like work. Usually more fun than work but no pay cheque.
And of course interactive audio involves listening to audio and, usually,
watching accompanying visuals. And possibly communication with others.

It's a different way to experience audio than we normally do. And, also, it
can produce different types of audio than we normally hear because of the
interactive/generative and networked dimensions. What you hear generally
depends, to some extent, on what you do with the mouse and/or keyboard. And
the programs have access to a lot of sound on the Internet.

It tends to be a personal experience. Someone looking over your shoulder
doesn't get the same rush you do because it's dancing with you, not them.
You are playing it. Perhaps a bit like an instrument is played or perhaps
like a computer game is played, or possibly as a game of Scrabble is played
(compositionally), but also as a video or an mp3 is played, or possibly as
some combination of several of these.

Almost always, the compositional dimension is unlike composing on a piano or
normal instrument. It's more like joining into a duet where the other person
is already playing a particular piece and you riff on it. You explore the
combinatorium of (usually) phrases that are already present rather than
compose a piece from scratch. So a different notion of a piece of music is
presented. A piece of music not as something that plays from beginning to
end, but as a combinatorium of parts that you sequence and possibly layer
according to your actions and the way the program's compositional logic
responds to your actions.

It probably won't replace the music video or the mp3. It will develop in
parallel with other types of music