Press Release

TELEMATIC DRUM CIRCLE
using tele-robotic musical ensemble to promote global harmony across the globe

Project Website: http://www.TelematicDrumCircle.net
The world first drum circle using tele-robotic percussion instruments played by online users and local visitors

Telematic Drum Circle is an interdisciplinary art project which combines telecommunications, robotics, human-computer interaction, and improvisational music. The project allows multiple online users around the world to create a live collective sound improvisation by controlling sixteen robotic percussion instruments via the Internet. The project explores the rupture of deeper communication in the technology meditated world, and addresses the issue of global harmony by sharing participants' rhythmical spirit produced through the telematic live drum ensemble. Telematic Drum Circle consists of two main components: a set of sixteen robotic percussion instruments arranged in an installation space and an interactive website (www.TelematicDrumCircle.net) networked with these instruments. Each percussion instrument is representative of a geo-cultural region. Regardless of age, sex, religion, race, and culture, we all have a universal rhythm which is a heart beat. The drum is an instrument of rhythm, and I believe it can stand in for a person's heart. The heart-to-heart communication expressed on drums and percussion instruments cuts through all the differences, and blurs the boundaries between us. By tapping the computer keyboard while at the website, participants around the world can remotely play the robotic instruments together, while watching a live streaming video of their ensemble broadcast through the website.

Exhibition History
2009/04 teleJAM Tintinnabulate Concert, Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center, NY, USA
2008/12, SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008, Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Singapore
2008/09, ArtBots 2008, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2008/06, AsiaGraph 2008, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
2008/05, Mapping the Beat Conference, Media Art Lab, Calit2, Irvine, CA, USA
2008/05, entre-deux, Beall Center for Art and Technology, Irvine, CA, USA
2008/04, Big Bang 08, UC Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, USA
2008/03, TechnoTravels/TeleMobility, HASTAC, Calit2, Irvine, CA, USA
2008/02, Byeong Sam Jeon Solo Exhibition, California Institute for Telecommunications & Information Technology, Irvine, CA, USA
2007/09, interfACEd: mediating techno-cultural practice, Calit2, Irvine, CA, USA

Two Youtube videos of Telematic Drum Circle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVNYu5TkbzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbwkcfg4I-Q

Exhibition Sponsors
Arts Council Korea (Korean Culture & Art Foundation)
Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Inc.
Remo Inc.
Embodied Media + Performance Technology Lab (EmptLab)
California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2)
Sparkfun Electronics
Arts Computation Engineering Program, University of California, Irvine
Department of Music, University of California, Irvine
Medici Scholar Award / Graduate Research Award - Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine
Bimba Manufacturing Company
HASS, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Electronic Arts Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

For more information about the project, please visit http://TelematicDrumCircle.net or contact Byeong Sam Jeon at byeongsam@gmail.com.