“the soundtrack”
Monday, February 1st, 2010Increasing the interactivity of my performance has been a growing concern of mine so I spent some time last month designing a version of my performance which can also serve as a viewer-driven installation which I figured I’d share.
The gist of the project is that the user is given the ability to draw a sequence on a sampler (most likely the munome), and then by wearing a special waistbelt their movements are translated into meaningful information which drives the playback of that sequence. The waistbelt contains an iPod touch which I use as the network-able, rechargeable, accelerometer which tracks the movement of the participant. I can track the length of time a waistbelt is checked out to a participant and give them a vibration to indicate that their time is up when should return it to the checkout station for the next person to use.
By distributing several of these waistbelts (each assigned to a different sound) into a space, several audience members can collaborate to form more rich and complex compositions through their own rhythmic movement. In the soundtrack, dance begets music, not the other way around.
In order to make this piece happen I’ve also been writing an iPhone / iPod application which generates a score based upon the movements of an individual running the application in their pocket. I’ll throw up the video I made demonstrating this in the next month or two when my video editing skills have increased a smidge.