MetaDiaPason's 8-Hour Interactive Online Concert Customer Care

The collective MetaDiaPason will present Customer Care, an interactive musical performance lasting eight hours, on March 20 as part of Lahore's digital art festival Postreality. The event will be held at Spazio Chirale in Rome but primarily online via P.I.C.O. (Performance Interactive Control Operator), an AI chatbot developed to connect remote users with performers. Three musicians at a time will play melodic, polyphonic, and timbral lines, equipped like call center operators with headsets and microphones in a glass-walled room. The eight-hour duration mirrors a standard workday, allowing global participation. Via the chatbot, audiences can modify musical lines, chat with an operator, or apply to join a remote jam session. Performers and selected participants rotate every twenty minutes, following audience instructions through P.I.C.O. under a principle of 'performative constraint' inspired by employee duties. Founded in 2005 by Leonardo Zaccone, MetaDiaPason comprises digital humanists, makers, and interdisciplinary experimenters exploring relational dynamics. The project draws on Fluxus performance practice and body performance, focusing on sound and everyday noises. Clio Flego of the collective noted that any object, including the body, can be an instrument, and the pandemic prompted reflection on performativity connecting people and technology. The work aims to remove barriers between audience and performer, fostering co-creation.