Sculpture as music interface

This paper describes the conception, design and implementation of a number of hardware/software musical interfaces and their use in performance with a group of dancers and as units for public interaction. It investigates the design and development of such interfaces in the light of these experiences. The work examines the nature of digital interfaces for musical expression through the use of sculptural forms and ideas, using multiple and diverse sensors, the data from which is used to generate and control multifarious musical parameters in software. It notes any relationships between the sculptural forms and the musical material produced. The combination of control of musically expressive algorithms through hardware design, combined with the expressive potential of dance and embodied movement is of particular interest. Reflecting links between embodied movement and expression in live performance, the feedback between form and function is also considered, as are collaborations with sculptors to develop and enhance the physical behaviour and visual appearance of these devices

Making People Move: Dynamic musical notations

In Treatise Handbook, Cornelius Cardew noted that “[musical] notation is a way of making people move” [1]. This paper describes and demonstrates new methods for the dynamic generation and display of augmented musical notation. The Fluxus Tree and Quantum Canticorum are the most recent in a sequence of musical compositions by the author in which dance and music interact using body-tracking technologies and bespoke sensing devices. Movement is converted into data which trigger and modulate expressive algorithms. Uniquely, these generate in real-time audio material as well as detailed common practice music notation to be performed live. Other techniques allow for the conversion from (and potentially to) graphic images and text. This paper demonstrates the techniques behind these inventions and explains how such techniques may be used to enhance the musical experience of performers and audiences. Quantum Canticorum is based on a sequence originally commissioned for 'Quantum2', an Arts Council UK funded project led by Jane Turner of the Turning Worlds dance company

Corporalité en performance électroacoustique : une approche

Mémoire en recherche-créationCe mémoire de maîtrise synthétise la démarche de recherche qui a mené à la création des œuvres audiovisuelles Interférences (String Network), DATANOISE et Pharmacologie, ainsi qu’à deux études de musique fixée. Ce texte propose une réflexion sur les possibilités d’utilisation des technologies numériques en temps réel, dans un contexte de performance électroacoustique. Il vise à développer des stratégies afin de pouvoir interpréter et incarner physiquement les musiques numériques. Les notions de risque, de collaboration et de symbolique en musique sont abordées. Ce mémoire défend la création de dispositifs audiovisuels spécifiques comme élément constituant de l’œuvre artistique. Il tend vers une corporalité de l’œuvre électroacoustique, par la recherche d’adéquation entre la nature des outils utilisés, l’attitude corporelle de l’interprète, la symbolique des éléments visibles, et le contenu de la composition musicale.This Master’s thesis summarizes the the research process that led to the creation of audiovisual works Interférences (String Network), DATANOISE and Pharmacologie, as well as two studies of fixed music. This text proposes a reflection on the possibilities of using digital technologies in real time, in a context of electroacoustic performance. It aims to develop strategies to perform and embody digital music. The notions of risk, collaboration and symbolism in music are discussed. This thesis defends the creation of specific audiovisual devices as constituent element of the artistic work. It tends towards a corporality of the electroacoustic work, by the search of adequacy between the nature of the tools used, the bodily attitude of the interpreter, the symbolism of the visible elements, and the content of the musical composition