This sensorial and interactive hardware application was key in my pieces to bring the participants into action. With it, the abstract message coded in the sonifications, traveled beyond the software into the minds and hearts of the participants, opening a sense of emotional curiosity, through playfulness and positive action. 

data sonification as tools for contemporary compositions and participatory sound installations

For this outcome, I decided to explore physical activities guided by instruction, as I believed that an embodied participation would increase the emotional connection to the installations’ purpose.


I searched for this physicality questioning what is the connection between meaning, sound, and participation? and how can an embodied action create an emotional link to the meaning of the piece?


Consequently, I chose to use technology to extend our sensorial world of perceptions. I explored motion and heartbeat sensors, MIDI controllers, CO2 sensors, and transducers. Through this technology, shown in detail in the catalog section of this exposition, the participants could change and compose soundscapes by going around a room, using MIDI controllers, or just by sending their heartbeats to the computer. They could also hear how a sonifications changes while measuring the amount of CO2 from the air they breathe, or just listen to sounds of deforestation while hugging a tree to later plant seeds next to it.

 

SOUNDING NUMBERS

 

The use of text on the installations, such as instructions, a poetic reflection, and scientific information. It created a space for the participants, to explore their curiosity. It enabled the possibility of a new stimulus for the audience.


When I tried these installations, everyone smiled and engaged in informal talks with each other about what they thought or discovered, offering their own inputs and reflections.

Reflective   

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