we’ve done a few pastagang performances in-person now. it has happened in three places: London, Karlsruhe and Ljubljana.
Each place has taken a slightly different approach / flavour.
- London used the public pastagang room and had multiple performers plugged in, with others sitting and standing around the venue.
- Karlsruhe signed up multiple individuals for a slot who performed under the pastagang name. nudel was used as part of this within a private room.
- Ljubljana put out a call for a pastagang set with fifteen minutes notice then plugged in a laptop.
I’m sure we all learned different things from it
Learnings from London
we’ve done a few performances now. here are some learnings in no specific order
- if you have two projectors, it’s best to have three people plugged in: two plugged into projectors for visuals, and one plugged into audio only. this is because hydra sometimes freezes and needs a refresh. we don’t (yet) have a way of refreshing hydra without also refreshing strudel, so refreshing hydra means you get a pause in the music. so… it’s best to not have the “visuals laptops” providing any sound.
- performance issues usually happen with the sound output. it’s best to use a beefy laptop for the sound, and to disable hydra and other things on that laptop if it needs help.
- if strudel starts to make farting noises because of too many sounds, delete some sounds and/or refresh. don’t be afraid of refreshing early. if you hear strudel farting, it’s probably already too late to recover it without refreshing also.
- if someone is livestreaming or recording their laptop, it’s best to not have them as the audio laptop, because they will need to refresh to keep the visuals going. ideally, they also aren’t projecting anything at all, as projecting AND recording can put a strain on your machine. In my opinion, the perfect setup is:
- one person outputting audio.
- one person outputting visuals (primary projector).
- one person outputting visuals (secondary projector).
- one person livestreaming.
- in pastagang performances, both projectors are usually showing the exact same thing, which is okay, but there is some scope for experimentation here. for example, instead of mirroring your screen to the secondary projector, you could extend your display and put another window there instead.
- I think the perfect thing would be a camera feed of a sibling rave going on at the same time. for example, pastagang could be performing in London and Ljubljana at the same time. we could literally both join a google meet or zoom call or something, connected to a webcam pointed at the crowd and/or performers.
- the secondary screen could show information about pastagang so that ravers know what’s going on, and how they can join via their phone or laptop.
- it could even be something like a special presentation mode of spag that shows how ravers can upload images and sounds from their phone to be used in the performance.
- it’s very important to delete lots of code during performances, because there are usually LOADS of people in the room. this helps to make space for everyone to join in and participate. it’s okay to delete everything at times. i think it’s good to go back to scratch a few times during each performance.
- sometimes, pastagang performers turn up with a plan, or ask what the plan is. this makes absolutely no difference because nothing ever goes to plan with pastagang. there are too many people involved in a pastagang performance: you can’t control it or decide or predict what’s going to happen. you’re not special for being there in person or plugged in. you’re merely a vessel to channel through everyone else from afar. you can even just plug in your laptop and stand there and do nothing: that’s still you doing your job, so feel free to dance or chat or whatever
- recording samples during a set can be hard when surrounded by lots of loud speakers. I’ve had success with this before by quickly muting and unmuting audio to record something in silence. it also works to make the most of any quiet sections (eg: at the very beginning) to record samples to use later.
- you might want to give a little introduction to what pastagang is at the start, to invite attendees to join if they want, and to allow people to understand what’s going on, so that they can be more a part of it. though it is also fun to do a reveal at the end, like “oh and by the way: surprise: like 20 people performed this set”.
- you might want to hang out flyers or put up posters to introduce pastagang to people.
- I think it’s good to rotate whoever’s plugged in from event to event so people don’t think that pastagang is any one individual or group of individuals. try to get as many different people to do it as possible. if someone gives an intro over the microphone, it’s also good to rotate this.
- it’s nice to have pastagang t shirts! if you make pastagang t shirts, you might want to print the design on the front of some t shirts and the back of some other t shirts. this is nice because you can share them around so that people can see the design no matter what. for the people plugged into projectors, we can see their front. for the people hanging around at tables, we can see their back. either way, it’s pastagang! the front/back variance can be an acknowledgement of the fact that pastagang is not just the people plugged in. the team kit works no matter where you are in the venue. and it’s nice to send t shirts to those far away too!
- flok rooms can start to run slow if left open for a very long time. i usually change the pastagang jam over to a fresh room a few days before a big gig to speed it up. i don’t do it on the day itself because it’s currently a bit buggy when you open nudel into a different room. i do it a few days in advance to let most people sign into the fresh room.
- if you get paid a fee for the in-person performance, consider donating it to one of the free open source tools we all use, like flok or hydra or strudel or shabda. it’s nice to support these, and it’s also an acknowledgement of the fact that many remote pastagangers performed too. so it might be unfair to claim the money yourself. maybe? i don’t know. what do you think?
- it’s great to encourage people to take photos and film things, as it’s nice to collect these together into a supercut to share with people around the world. it also serves as a nice souvenir for people. in the future, you could consider having an easy place for people to upload or send these, as it might be a fun way for audience members to take part, and it’s much easier than trying to gather up photos and film from millions of different social media sites.
- when editing a supercut— no, wait, that should be a different guide
Learnings from Sheffield
(insert learnings hear)
I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I’VE LEARNED IS THAT NONE OF THIS MATTERS TOO MUCH AND YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT AS LONG AS LOVE IS IN YOUR HEART AND YOU LET CODE DIE.
this blog post was written by pastagang. anyone can edit this blog post
back to the [/blog]