Synthetic Bodies

Synthetic Bodies is an interactive dance-music performance that uses motion capture technology to control real-time sound synthesis and audio manipulation. Developed as part of my Master’s thesis at the University of Michigan, the goal of this project was to collaboratevily explore movement-based musical interactions for music composition and choreography. We developed different mappings between movement and sound using modosc, a Max/MSP library for the real-time analysis of motion descriptors. In weekly sessions, we tested different interaction models that combine the position, velocity, and acceleration, of different body parts of a dancer. The different interaction models were later articulated into a combined music composition and dance choreaography, and was presented in a live performance.