NAG

I’ve been playing with N.A.G., which is an “automated remixer” for audio files downloaded via Gnutella. It runs on both Windows and OSX.

N.A.G. (Network Auralization for Gnutella) is interactive software art for Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP which turns the process of searching for and downloading MP3 files into a chaotic musical collage. Type in one or more search keywords, and N.A.G. looks for matches on the Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing network. The software then downloads MP3 files which match the search keyword(s) and remixes these audio files in real time based on the structure of the Gnutella network itself.

The remixes sound pretty terrible right now, mainly because the volume drops as the files are mixed into each other. This gives the effect of a pesky younger sibling flipping through radio channels. You guys remember radio, right? I didn’t think so. However, it gives me great hope that this can be fixed in a later release.