Echoes of Harmonic Threads

Overview

A real-time performance installation and designer-dancer workshop exploring movement, sound, and technology. Presented at Ars Electronica 2023 in Linz, Austria under the theme Who Owns the Truth? as part of the Expanded Animation Symposium’s Synaesthetic Syntax panel.

Concept and Approach

The project started as a question about translation: what happens when a dancer’s movement becomes the instrument? I designed a system that captured gestural input in real-time and mapped it to a sonic vocabulary. Not a literal one-to-one mapping, but one that kept the expressive character of the movement while introducing its own logic.

The workshop component was a core part of the design. Participants moved from audience to co-creators by learning how the system worked through their bodies. This meant the interaction model had to be discoverable without instruction: clear enough for a newcomer to start exploring immediately, and deep enough to reward continued engagement.

Context

Presented at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria on September 9, 2023 as part of the Ars Electronica Festival for Art, Technology & Society (running from September 6-10, 2023).

Role

Research · Collaboration · Art Direction · Interaction Design · Development · Audio Engineering