Telepæsants is a group that sprang out of Kaon’CPT collective of remotely improvising artists spanning 15 timezones. Becoming Telepæsants is our research-creation project where we explore the use of Digital Musical Instruments, and networked protocols, to interact with virtual and physical objects. In our work, the distance is the essence, and we need to weave it into all aspects of our exploration together. We have been exploring hybrid performances using both potential virtual spaces and physical locations, and gesture, in all its manifestations (physical, musical, visual, digital).Telepæsants has presented and performed their works extensively and are continuously developing a strong immersive aesthetic with video, multi-channel audio, improvisation, lighting and hybridity.
Our works are usually iterative. We indentify some questions that we work on, such as musical ideas and approaches, performance details, technical adoption, etc. Then we discuss, rehearse, work out the kinks, and perform. Then we rince, and repeat. As a result, each performance is different, while keeping some foundational details to maintain a unity of a particular project.
Artistic telepresence is not new. It is a way of bending network technologies in service to human beings to connect, even at great distances, that leverages economic, time, carbon footprint, and other long-distance travel inconveniences. Yet, technology is not the singular solution to satisfy all the needs that amount to successful human connections. Technology facilitates the pathos of the interactors.
Performance Video - Live at PIKSEL
Artistic telepresence is not new. It is a way of bending network technologies in service to human beings to connect, even at great distances, that leverages economic, time, carbon footprint, and other long-distance travel inconveniences. Yet, technology is not the singular solution to satisfy all the needs that amount to successful human connections. Technology facilitates the pathos of the interactors.
The interactors here are seasoned musicians hacking their way through pipelines of CAT6 and fiberoptic illusions into the open source water draping the soundscapes of the finest moment of this digital landscape. The performance is delivered in a hybrid way. Michał uses his SteamDeck to control waves of wavelets, pulsars and pulsarettes, via IA-assisted mapping of physical gestures to audible sounds, visible light, shifting shadows and other visual magic. On the other hand, Dirk is tele-copresent in some indeterminate space, twelve timezones ahead of us, in the eastern hemisphere. He is playing the FryProne, that he built himself. Michał and Dirk connect by a portal made of network switches and protocols, data over the internets, over the aforementioned CAT6s and fiberoptics. Projectors shoot photons on appropriate surfaces for all to see, and 48000Hz, 24bit audio signals materialize as air pressure fluctuations, for all to hear. Telepæsants surfing the technofeudal lands.
Performance video - Linux Audio Conference
Troubèr,Telepæsants’ continued investigation into telepresence, reimagines the medieval “trouvère” — the wandering musician who sought connection through song — as a metaphor for two contemporary performers navigating distance, digital fragmentation, and the search for presence within a networked world.
Troubèr is not about transmitting music — it is about emergence. It unveils how distance can be a source of creativity, not just separation. In a world of digital noise, the work reminds us that connection begins with gesture, silence, and the quiet act of listening, not data and fast-paced imagery.
This piece is both a performance and a living laboratory — where music, presence, and human interaction are continuously redefined in a virtual world. We invite the audience not to watch, but to listen - to feel the search, the uncertainty, and the quiet beauty of finding each other across distance.
Here is https://youtu.be/UuxoNoHPxLs?si=Z6vlyL210NLvl3Ts, the first iteration of the piece.
Michał Seta is a sound artist, improviser, code plumber and digital arts researcher. Transdisciplinarity is his daily bread and he conjures it in his personal and professional life. He co-founded the band No One Receiving as well as UniSecs, a spoken word and electroacoustic music duo. As a coder, he has contributed to his own work and that of other artists. He has served as a reasearch assistant to Sandeep Bhagwati, where he developed several digital scores. He has ventured into interactive art installations with [IR]rational, a commission from the Montreal Science Centre, and Re-Collect, an award-winning project that has been presented in North America, Europe and the Middle East. His short film [*]nScape was selected for the first Drone Cinema Film Festival and was followed by several musical releases in rapid succession, mainly on Silent Records. Recently, he has been interested in using video games as a vehicle for musical expression.
Dirk Johan Stromberg is an Improvisor, Audio Engineer, Maker, and Production Designer. His body of work explores the dynamic interaction between performers and technology in performance practice. His collaborations have drawn him to work with various musicians, artists, dancers, writers and composers in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Designing both hardware and software has led to the development of various interfaces, synthesis techniques, installation works, electro-acoustic instruments, and interdisciplinary works. Currently, he is focused on creating instruments as part of a new performance practice. His instruments aim to reveal the physical manifestation of his musical process. He focuses on tactile-agile instruments with a high degree of versatility that enables him to work with and respond to different artists in many styles.
Dirk promotes the approach of the community as an integral process of making art and has consistently facilitated vehicles for collaboration and art-making through festivals. He co-founded and co-directed the Duong Dai festival in Vietnam (2007-2018) and curated several different concert series focusing on improvised and spontaneous music. Currently, he is curating the Hidden Session series in Singapore.
He has presented his work as a composer, performer, improviser, and maker in conferences and festivals ranging from NIME to Moers. Dirk is currently a Senior Lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore.
Stay tuned for future performances!
https://youtu.be/UuxoNoHPxLs?si=Z6vlyL210NLvl3Ts
https://youtu.be/xoEx1FXIru0?si=XNrn35dKPM9y2cby Excerpt: https://youtu.be/6SCf4D4UopE