As a part of our Non-Bio Boom season we are delighted to host a new work development residency by Marco Donnarumma, with Brendan F Doyle (Production Sound Engineering). The residency will conclude with two concerts over the course of one evening for bio-sensing wearable technologies.

The first concert will include Music for Flesh II, a new solo piece by Marco Donnarumma; the second concert will be the premiere of a multi-channel work specifically created by the artist for Inspace, which will actively involve the audience in an augmented Cagean Musicircus.

Xth Sense is an ongoing research project which investigates experimental applications of Open Source based, bio-sensing technologies for musical performance and responsive milieux. The Xth Sense software framework is implemented in Pure Data.

Marco Donnarumma is a performer, new media and sonic artist currently interested in critical analysis and development of experimental paradigms for embodied interaction in performative environments.

More about Music for Flesh II

Music for Flesh II is a solo sonic piece for augmented muscles sounds, which aims at demonstrating an experimental coupling between theatrical gesture and biological sounds of human body.

Composition was developed as a first milestone of the Xth Sense project, a broader ongoing research which investigates exploratory applications of biophysical sound design for musical performance and responsive milieux. The long-term outcome is the implementation of low cost, open source tools (software and hardware) capable of providing musicians, performers and dancers with a framework for biosensors-aided auditive design in a real time environment; such framework will be re-distributable, customizable and easy to set up.

Presently Xth Sense technology consists of a low-cost, biosensing wearable hardware device and a Pure Data-based framework for capture, analysis and real time processing of biological sounds of the body.

In Music for Flesh II the only musical instrument available to the performer is his own body. Performer’s voluntary muscles contractions produce kinetic energy, an acoustic sound which is captured by the biosensor and deployed as only sonic source. At the same time the biological signal undergoes a feature extraction which provides control parameters for the real time processing of muscles sounds.

Performer uses his body not only as a controller, but, more importantly, also as a truly real musical instrument; he is capable to actually creates music in real time exciting his muscles fibres.

Such paradigm attempts at informing classical gestural control of music and musical performance itself. During the execution both performer and listeners can perceive an authentic auditive and cognitive intimacy; the neat and natural responsiveness of the system prompts a suggestive and unconventional coupling of sound and gestures.

One of the major aims of the design of Music for Flesh II was to avoid a perception of the sound being dissociated from the performer’s gesture. The dissociation I point at does not only refer to the visual feedback of performer’s actions being disjointed from the sonic experience, but it also concerns a metaphorical level affecting the listener’s interpretation of the sounds generated by the performer’s somatic behaviour. Therefore, chosen sound processing techniques were evaluated according to their capability of enhancing the metaphorical interpretation of performer’s physiological behaviour.

Additional Information

The use of open source technologies is an integral aspect of the research. The biosensing wearable device was designed and implemented by Marco Donnarumma, with the support of Edinburgh Hacklab, Andrea Donnarumma and Marianna Cozzolino. The Pure Data-based framework for real time analysis and processing of biological sounds was designed and coded by the author on a Linux machine, with inspiring advice by Martin Parker, Sean Williams, Owen Green and Andy Farnell.

Below you can view a live recording of the performance at The University of Edinburgh, UK, March 2001.
Music for Flesh II, for solo performer Marco Donnarumma (Xth Sense biosensing technology).

Music for Flesh II - solo piece for Xth Sense biosensing wearable device from Marco Donnarumma aka TheSAD on Vimeo.

The wireless wearable sound system frees electronic music from the restraints of immovable equipment, opening up possibilities for mobile performance and new forms of audience participation. The NSS enables musicians to fully engage with the space and experiment with human analogue surround sound, moving speakers around the audience, setting up surprises in the halls and corridors and creating site specific musical journeys in the process. Learn more at We Make Money Not Art.

Cave (not to be confused with the musician of the same name) draws from sources as varied as African ceremonial costumes, Tibetan textiles, and pop-culture creatures. His elaborate suits aren’t just objects pegged to a pedestal; they’re meant to be worn, vitalized through movement and the sounds they make. In fact, the dance-trained artist is working toward a 90-suit performance that he’ll take around the world.

Read a New York Times feature about Cave, listen to his interview at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, visit his current exhibition at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, buy the exhibition catalogue, and peek at past shows at his New York gallery.

For more images, see: flavorwire.

This four day workshop introduces basic soft electronics techniques for constructing fabric sensors and wearable circuits. Instead of using soldering irons and wire, we will use sewing needles and conductive thread. The theme of the workshop is hacking sound toys into wearables. During the workshop each participant will develop a wearable project, paying attention to the placement of components and the relationship between body, action and sound. Participants will design wearable interactions and deal with issues such as comfort, functionality, context and purpose. We will introduce to a range of available and affordable materials, tools
and craft techniques for making soft electronics that are easy to be continued at home.The textile components covered in this workshop will include: soft and stretchy fabric traces, battery pouches, hard/soft permanent and plugable connections, pressure, bend, tilt and stretch sensors as well as modifying sound toy circuits to be integrated in soft circuitry. Techniques will include: sewing, soldering, embroidery, fusing, knitting, crochet as well as isolation techniques.

Last but not least, we will be raising this question throughout the workshop: why we would ever want to map sounds to our bodies in the first place, let alone embed electronics in our clothing. Participants of all skill levels are welcome and encouraged to bring their
own old clothes to repurpose.

The workshop will be held in English by Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi. For more information: www.kobakant.at/DIY/

Please apply by filling the form here: www.ateliernord.no. If you have any questions please mail to: office@ateliernord.no or call 23060880.
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ATELIER NORD
Wergelandsvn. 17
N-0167 Oslo
www.ateliernord.no

Miya Masaoka has created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. Her work has been presented in Japan, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe and she has toured to India six times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4gAoJs5nDk

From CatSynth’s review of 2009 San Francisco Electronic Music Festival:

“The festival began with a piece by Miya Masaoka (whom Pamela Z jokingly referred to as the “mother of SFEMF” in her introduction). The LED Kimono project not surprisingly featured a kimono with LEDs, worn by dancer Mariko Masaoka-Drew. The dress itself was very pretty and simple, with a large LED array on the right-hand sleeve. Throughout the performance, different patterns were featured on the LEDa, sometimes very subtle with only a few active, and at other times large oscillating rectangular patterns.

The music began with a very traditional koto performance. There some delay, sampling and pitch-shift effects in the background. The koto was mostly struck or plucked, and occasionally bowed. During the section of the performance, there was almost no dance movement. Over time, more electronics came in, initially low, dronaning, and with overtones that sounded vaguely FM or inharmonic, almost like electrical noise.

As more electronic sounds came in, the dancer began to move, very slowly and subtly. Indeed, most of the movement throughout the piece was very subtle and slow, and did not clearly map to the musical material. On the other hand, the LEDs on the dress did match the rhythms and timbral changes. The first came on during and electronic arpeggio that sounded like classic FM synthesis. There were some dramatic swells with the higher FM-like sounds. The music primarily moved between the elements described, with the long drones and then the fast arpeggiation. But the physical movement of the dancer remained slow. As a result, I found myself mostly focused on the LEDs and the dress.

And the end, I stayed to watch the process of Masaoka-Drew being “unplugged” from the dress, and to fully observe the amount of electronics (and wiring) that were required for it to function.”

This year the main focus of the workshop is on perceptual processes. The project title — Halbinseln der Wahrnehmung/ Peninsulae of Perception — is a reference to a diary written by a person afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome. The diary has been proposed as research libretto for investigations into differing perceptual channels and psycho-social research on autism, synaesthesia, music composition and real-time performance. The acoustic-musical dimension of the 2009 laboratory is complemented by research into design or wearable audiophonics and acousmatic architectures and sound perceptions.

The workshop brings together artists, scientists and researchers from different backgrounds committed to sharing their experiences and catalyzing multidisciplinary science-art collaborations. Special guests in residence at the summer lab are Stefan Scheib and Katharina Bihler from the Liquid Penguin Ensemble, an experimental music-theatre group that gained wide recognition through their award-winning radio music dramas. Their latest production, “Bout du Monde,” has just been selected radio drama of the month (June 2009) by the German Academy of the Performing Arts. Previously, “GRAS WACHSEN HÖREN - das biolingua Institut wir 100 Jahre alt” was awarded the prize for best german radio drama and the ARD Online Award in 2008. Their music theatre performance “Eurydike hinter den Grenzen” (2007) was shown at festivals in Luxembourg, Düsseldorf, Saarbrücken and other venues.

The laboratory is organized by theatre director and media artist Johannes Birringer who founded the Interaktionslabor in 2003 and currently holds a professorship in digital performance at Brunel University, London. “We have had many inquiries this year, as our subject combines research into media arts and psychology,” Birringer says, “and the lab also has a continuing commitment to challenging our assumptions about space and perceptual constructions. We look forward to the participants from Latin America, Great Britain, France and Switzerland who will join artists and educators from the region.” The lab ensemble plans to create a sonic installation in the 10KV, a former electric plant on the campus of the mine. The Interaktionslabor, which went on tour last summer to Belo Horizonte, Brasil, has become increasingly well known for its unique peripheral location, its independent, autonomous status, and the transcultural partnteships it has helped to build over the years.

The lab ensemble plans to create a sonic installation in the 10KV, a former electric plant on the campus of the mine. The Interaktionslabor, which went on tour last summer to Belo Horizonte, Brasil, has become increasingly well known for its unique peripheral location, its independent, autonomous status, and the transcultural partnerships it has helped to build over the years.
The activities are open to visitors, and information about the proceedings and the research process can be found here.

Sensory Threads — by Proboscis — is a work-in-progress to develop an instrument enabling a group of people to create a soundscape reflecting their collaborative experiences in the environment. For this interactive sensory experience, we are designing sensors for detecting environmental phenomena at the periphery of human perception as well as the movement and proximity of the wearers themselves. Possible targets for the sensors may be electro-magnetic radiation, hi/lo sound frequencies, heart rate etc). The sensors’ datastreams will feed into generative audio software, creating a multi-layered and multi-dimensional soundscape feeding back the players’ journey through their environment. Variations in the soundscape reflect changes in the wearers interactions with each other and the environment around them.

Featured artworks - The Knitting Scanner by Azusa Murakami reads patterns in knitted garments and translates them into music; Chromophone by Benjamin Newland allows people to make music from the colours that they see; Fabien Cappello turns type into beautiful music using a modified traditional typewriter; an installation of porcelain bowls by Jozephine Duker people play using their hands or everyday objects like a pen; a comfortable lounge chair by Vahakn Matossian houses an audio processing ‘brain,’ microphone, joystick and sound horns; Giuseppe Guerriero’s instrument has fifty sensors around its surface to allow body movements to compose and play music; Lucia Massari turns an ordinary book into an extraordinary musical instrument; Matthew Plummer-Fernandez has created a wind-up human-powered electronic instrument; Yiting Cheng and Ting-Chung Cheng have devised a wearable instrument with which body movements execute a symphony of buttons, zip fasteners, velcro and pins. Related: itSpace by Peter Traub.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2Bv2zMrcpM

Above is an interview with the works creators. Originally seen at Fashioning Technology. [posted by Garrett on Network Research]

This wearable electroacoustic instrument is shaped into a peacock’s fan-like plumage and is highly directional — projecting the sound into a space like an oversized radar dish. Much in the same way that the courtyard peacock “strutts his stuff” in front of a pea-hen and imposes with his awesome cry, so does the Audio Peacock stalk his architectural domain — using sound as a scalpel that cuts through air and sculpts it, transforming it to into his new realm. An Audio Peacock can either amplify and alter its own voice or electronic instruments using a microphone, sampler, and filters (loop + pitch), play pre-recorded sounds, or receive live sounds via transmitter/receiver.

As Video Peacocks (wearing white plexiglass „skins“) 4 of these electroacoustic birds patrol a darkened environment. Their audio costumes double as mobile projection screens: whenever their paths intersect the light of a video projector the costumes metamorphasize into multi-colored screens. Colorful visualizations (movies, pictures, internet blogs, interactive webcasts, closed-circuit cameras) are “beamed“ onto them as they play their sounds. As a site-specific and multi-phonic installation the parcours of these “cyber-birds“ is choreographed vis-a-vis to the emplacement of the projectors in the architectural space.

Benoît Maubrey was born of French parents in Washington DC in 1952. He graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts Diploma from Georgetown University. In 1979 he moved to West Berlin and after the collapse of the former East Germany moved to the state of Brandenburg where he and his partner Susken Rosenthal founded the non-profits arts organization Kunstpflug e.V. His performance and installation work has been presented in many international art festivals, Since 1990 he lives and works in the village of Baitz (near Belzig,Brandenburg/). Since 1983 numerous performances and exhibitions (a selection): Ars Electronica (1985), SONAMBIENTE/ Academy of Arts Berlin(1996), Tokyo City Opera/ NTT-ICC (1997), International Symposium of Electronic Arts/Chicago (1997), The Kitchen /NYC, Monaco Dance Danses Forum (2000), Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Location One/NYC, Gracia Territoria Sonor/Barcelona, (2003) , Thailand New Media Art Festival/Bangkok, Sitelines Festival/NYC (2006), Schloss Moyland/ Joseph Beuys Archive. (2007), Mostra des Artes/ Sao Paulo (2008).