Beat my bass, pluck my drum

Beating a bass, plucking a drum -- new systems of instruments make it possible. In this paper we describe recent research into networked musical instruments for group improvisation; instruments that reciprocally influence each other's behaviour, making, contrary to what we are used to, the interaction with them unpredictable, unstable, out of control, but highly interesting and exciting for both musician and the audience. This research will not only result in different ways of musical expression, but also teach us lessons about how to design open systems. We describe our theoretical starting points, the set-up of our research case, as well as one example design: a two-stringed synthesizer controller and an augmented percussive instrument that influence each other's tonal characteristics. With these instruments collaboration is a must. There is no 'i' in network