Composer-improviser and trombonist Michael Dessen creates highly interactive music shaped by experimental jazz traditions, intermedia practice, and sustained telematic collaboration. At the University of California, Irvine, he co-founded the Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology program; through projects including Puentes Telemáticos, he has connected young musicians across California and Colombia. This workshop treats improvising online as more than overcoming delay: it is a practice of close listening, shared risk, cultural exchange, and collective form-making across disparate locations, technologies, and musical histories.

Telematic Workshops is a six-part online gathering for artists, musicians, performers, researchers, and curious audiences who want to rethink what live art can become when collaborators perform across the network.

These free one-hour sessions bring internationally recognized practitioners into conversation with Washington, DC’s experimental music and media arts communities, connecting that exchange to participants worldwide.

Whether you already work online, create experimental media or electronic music, or are just curious about the telematic arts, the Telematic Workshops offer a place to meet, discuss, test ideas, and imagine new forms of networked live performance.

Improvisatory Collaboration Across Networks | Michael Dessen