A workshop I coordinated at Aalto’s LUME studios for sound designers and dancers. During the week each sound designer built a sensor pack, then collaborated with a dancer, who brought the sounds to life. Dancers’ movements triggered and manipulated the sounds.
In a collaboration with choreographer Hanna Pajala-Assefa, sound designer Aki Päivärinne and costume designer Liisa Pesonen, we curated a five day course that gave new media sound designers a crash course on dance, the body, electronics and programming.
On the Wednesday afternoon, dancers were fitted with sensors and began working with the sound designers. On Friday each team’s work was presented. Watch some snippets here:
The Monday was comprised of movement exercises, some lectures on the human body and some theory of sound in dance. Tuesday was the designated tech day.
We soldered circuit boards, attached sensors and connected everything to Arduinos. Once the circuitry was tested we needed to establish wireless communication from the sensors to laptops.
Everyone realised that troubleshooting was a big part of the process!
On Wednesday afternoon the dancers arrived and we started fixing the sensors to them.
Sensor data was sent wirelessly to Pure Data or Max MSP patches.
Dancers had interesting perspectives on how the sound could work.
Once dancers were wired up, they began to experiment with the sounds.
Thanks to all the participants.
Sound Designers: Jani Hietenen, Camilo Sánchez Carranco, Melike Ceylan, Joonas Kristian.
Dancers: Hanna Pajala-Assefa, Jasemine Sipilä, Iina Taijonlahti, Aino Ojanen.