Performance / Instalation / Software

The conSEQuencer uses a depth sensor to translate body motion into abstract soundscapes.

A user’s gestures trigger and modulate sonic events in the stereo field, which in turn influence his/her next gesture.  Placed in a new paradigm of relationship to the body, the user takes on an intuitive game with the installation, exploring the effects of each body parts on the evolving sound.  Every day actions have unusual audible consequences, adding a semyotic and aesthetic dimension to the functionnality of moving.  Each session becomes a spontaneous composition of experimental electronic music, with the installation providing only a network of interaction for the user to realise.

The sounds are generated by granular playback of field recordings and musical instruments samples.  These are deconstructed and heavily treated in order to range from their recognizable sources to digital audio chaos, depending on the user’s actions.  Tension is thus created, as some gestures become harmonic and pleasing, and others dangerous.  In some cases the body is a musical instrument that generates arpeggios and chord progressions, in others it transforms the texture of a continuous soundscape.  The body movements can be coupled to a live instrument which pitch is tracked and harmonised by the user.

The system was initially developed as a tool for contemporary dance performance and improvisation, before being restructured as an open installation.  Thanks to close collaboration, workshops, and performances with dancers, a number of descriptive parameters for individual gestures were extracted from relationships of positions, angles, and speeds, so as to be tracked separately with no crosstalk.  These are mapped to the audio parameters through an open grid, which can be saved to presets to be structured at will.

download patch:
GLConSeqMvtPatch.pd (movement analysis)
GLConSeqGranularPatch (granular sampler)

conSEQuencer users:  Emilie St Hilair  l  Kate Woods  l  Ruth Waldeyer  l  Brendan Flynn  l  Morgan Carparelli  l  Rhiannon O’Connor  l  Andrea Serrapiglio  l  Leonardo Diana  l  Kasper Sekiyama  l  Daniel Griffiths  l  Mona Gamil  l  Syoukhan  l  Manecante  l  Vinicius Monteiro Carvalho  l  Colin Parsons  l  Mireia Arnela  l  Solene Coignard  l  Steff Meul  l  Valeria Garre  l  Florencia Morales  l  El Chino  l  Nave Nau Ivanow  l  Rest’Art  l  Ashkan Hatef  l  Dan Antell  l  Visages Du Monde Cergy  l  …