SuperContinent Live: A performance and conversation

The collaborative practices of live coding, network music, and collective improvisation are transforming what it means to make and perform electronic music in our increasingly digital world. SuperContinent, a group of live network performers and researchers from around the world (with members in Canada, Colombia, India, Israel, Japan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom), are actively experimenting with each of these practices, creating music and opportunities for remote connection over computer networks.

Join us on June 10th for a live performance by SuperContinent, followed by a conversation with the members about their practice, how they came together, and how their model for a decentralized, global collaboration has proved especially resilient during these times. 

Stream the performance and join the following conversation live on our Facebook page.

Have questions on this topic that you want to get to our panelists ahead of time? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca.  

About SuperContinent

A defining feature of the SuperContinent ensemble is that its members are globally distributed, with the ensemble’s growth constrained by the rule that any new members must be located more than 500 kilometres away from any existing member. The ensemble represents a unique global musical micro-community that would be impossible without the affordances of networking technologies, and is one of a relatively small number of “standing” network music ensembles that rehearse and perform regularly, with a defined yet evolving membership, over a number of years.

SuperContinent has been active since 2018, with notable performances including those at the International Conference on Live Coding, the 2020 EulerRoom Equinox Global livestream, and at various live coding events organised by Toplap Japan and Algorave India. The group rehearses and performs within the Estuary browser-based platform for collaborative live coding, developed in the Networked Imagination Laboratory at McMaster University, as part of the ongoing SSHRC-funded project “Platforms and practices for networked, language-neutral live coding.”

Meet SuperContinent

Abhinay Khoparzi (@khoparz) is a musician, visual artist and creative technologist from Allahabad, India. He curates and organises live coding events under the umbrella of Algorave India. 

Celeste Betancur (@essteb) is a musician and researcher at ITM in Medellín, Colombia, and a developer of live coding tools such as apps, languages and render engines.

Chiho Oka (@chihooka) is a musician and artist, mainly focusing on computer-related sound, based in Tokyo, Japan. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Tokyo University of the Arts.

David Ogborn (@_dktr0) directs the Networked Imagination Laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia.

Eldad Tsabary (@eldadtsabary) is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Electroacoustic Studies in Concordia University’s Department of Music, in Montreal, Canada.

Jessica A. Rodriguez is a visual/audio artist and Ph.D. student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Her practice unfolds around audiovisual practices such as live coding, electronic literature, visual music, and experimental video.

Melandri Laubscher (@MelAboutMusic) is an audio engineer and musician, as well as manager of UPLOrc (University of Pretoria Laptop Orchestra), established in May 2019 as the first ensemble of its kind in South Africa. 

Mynah Marie (@mynah_m) is an accordionist, singer and live coder originally from Montreal, Canada. Currently based in Haifa, Israel, Mynah is the initiator of Toplap Israel and works as an artist under the name Earth To Abigail.

Shelly Knotts (@shelly_knotts) is a researcher at Durham University in Durham, United Kingdom, and an improviser who produces live-coded and network music performances and projects that explore aspects of code, data and collaboration.