Miya Masaoka is a third generation Japanese American artist classically trained as a musician and composer. In her compositions and installations, she involves improvisation, interaction, spatialization, sensors, computers, and various media including video and film.
In this interview with fellow Japanese/American sound artist Keiko Uenishi I work outwards from the personal to consider the radical potential of internet-based sound and video improvisation to build community across ethnic and gender lines.
Having just completed an internet web streaming project with the Western Front (http://www.front.bc.ca) in Vancouver and Radiokunst (http://www.radiokunst.net) in Vienna entitled Chironomy, I have a particular interest in real time and interactive internet art, a genre which often involves connecting international communities. As such, internet art has the theoretical potential to break down social and cultural borders. While the erasure of gender and ethnic lines has certainly not fulfilled '90's naïve prophecies of a "cyber melting-pot," the potential for inclusivity continues to hover about this genre that melds improvisation, collective decision-making, and a joining of visual elements with sound for a more immersive and integrated improvisational environment. The open nature of this genre can create an unusually inclusive atmosphere among its participants.
While curating the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, I became aware of Keiko Uenishi (http://obla.at), her sound pieces and her intense involvement with an ongoing real time internet project, Share (http://www.share.dj).