In the second week of May, we conducted an online practice-based research and knowledge transfer project to explore the online mediation of jazz and improvisational performance.
As part of the Mai Jazz festival in Stavanger, Norway the members of the Kitchen Orchestra collaborated with visual artists Testuya Nagato and Hiraku Suzuki to create a performance that blended composed and improvised elements.
For the week leading up to the event, the artists and musicians were given Flip digital video cameras and asked to point those cameras at whatever they thought was interesting.
The videos that resulted were compiled and uploaded into a blog, which also allowed visitors to engage with the participants, ask questions and post their own videos, photographs, thoughts and reviews. The website not only allowed audiences to peek behind the curtain, learn about the musicians and their music and become familiar with the ideas behind the performance; but also allowed the musicians to reflect upon their own practice and the ways in which that practice communicates.