Electronic
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ABOUT THE PROJECT

This Summer, The Bass and MyFi Studio partner to create interactive art and music-making experiences by presenting a series of Electronic Music Labs.

Inspired by artist Nam June Paik’s (b. 1932, Seoul, d. 2006, Miami Beach) early music roots and artwork titled Internet Dweller (1994, on loan from Art Bridges), MyFi Studio created in real time (2024), a collection of custom electronic music instruments available online and in person at the Internet Dweller Electronic Music Labs at The Bass.

Made possible with generous support by Art Bridges, guests will learn how to play MyFi Studio instruments, create new media, and have the chance to own an electronic instrument.

Trained as a classical pianist, Paik studied music composition with noted composers and worked with audio electronics before he began incorporating objects, mixing live and prerecorded sounds into his arrangements and subsequent experiments with performance art, as seen in works like TV Cello (2023).

Video produced by MyFi Studio.

Credited with originating the term “electronic superhighway” in 1974, Paik went on to create artwork that positioned digital media as an artistic medium just as social networks expanded globally, making way for the current entanglements between humans and technology. Works like Paik’s Internet Dweller corresponded with the public launch of the World Wide Web and its power to separate and unite humanity.

To further perpetuate the potency of connectivity and collaboration that the internet provides, The Bass commissioned MyFi Studio, a multimedia production studio led by performance duo Aimee Rubensteen and Dr. Josh Eisenberg, to create 404 custom electronic music instruments, offering a new avenue for internet citizens to co-create new work as a collective.

Generated by code, written in p5.js and stored on Ethereum (a decentralized blockchain network), MyFi Studio’s new instruments, in real time, play audio and analog glitch visuals in real time. The instruments are shaped by MyFi Studio’s electronic instrument building and improvisational performance practice. The collection of 404 unique samplers are designed to be played on a laptop at home, collaboratively with friends, or during a live performance. 404 instruments will be distributed to the public to own for free. The Bass and MyFi will retain an additional 25 instruments each for ongoing and future use by the public.

In 1963, Paik wrote that “in the most indeterminate music, the composer gives the possibility for the indeterminacy or the freedom of the interpreter, but not to the audience.” To remedy, he “resigned the performance of music” and created musical instruments and exposed them so that the audience “may play them as they please” rendering him “no longer a cook, but only a delicatessen proprietor.”

In resonance, The Bass and MyFi Studio’s Internet Dweller Electronic Music Labs invite new audiences to dwell on the internet and use music as a bridge to art making “as they please.”

The in real time collection of instruments can be accessed and experienced on The Bass website beginning July 31, 2024. MyFi Studio will host the live Internet Dweller Electronic Music Labs Sessions on August 29, September 5, and September 12 onsite at The Bass. Each live session will feature a special guest contributor such as Gustavo Matamoros, Archival Feedback, and Smurphio. The instructional Internet Dweller Online Open Studio Sessions will take place August 27, September 3, and September 10 on Twitch. RSVP to the sessions at the links below.

ABOUT MyFi Studio

MyFi Studio is a Miami-based multimedia production studio and performance duo building electronic music instruments and interactive art tools for collaborators, public programming, and live performance. MyFi Studio’s instruments are generated by code, written in p5.js, and stored on Ethereum. Their first two instrument collections sold out instantly, debuting on Billboard’s Biggest Music NFT chart in 2023. All MyFi Studio instruments are free to play online. MyFi Studio is co-founded by Aimee Rubensteen (MA) and Dr. Josh Eisenberg. Learn more about MyFi Studio here: www.myfi.studio

Website: https://www.myfi.studio
Twitter/X: @MyFiStudio
Instagram: @MyFiStudio
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/myfistudio

Photography by Karli Evans. Image courtesy of MyFi Studio.

MyFi Studio Wallet Instructions

Before starting, remember your key phrase is a private password that unlocks an Ethereum Wallet. Do not share your private key phrase with anyone.

Step 1) Download the Metamask Wallet extension in the Chrome Browser on your desktop or laptop computer.

Step 2) Open Metamask. Select that you want to create a new wallet. Follow the instructions within Metamask for creating the new wallet. Note, this is a new wallet, not the wallet with your in real time NFT.

Step 3) Click the arrow at the top of Metamask next to where it says account in the middle. At the bottom of the drop down menu click “+ Add account or hardware wallet”. Click the “import account” button.

Step 3) Type the entire private key into the “Enter your private key string here” field. The key phrase begins with the characters: “0x”. Be sure to double check the correctness of the letters you are typing.

Step 4) Now your Ethereum wallet lives in the Metemask browser extension. Your instrument NFT is in the wallet. Note that the in real time is in the wallet you imported, and not in the wallet you created in step 2.