Last term I have introduced foundations of the project Sonokinesis – the idea of controlling the sound by the movement and other aspects of human body. I have made a pair of wireless interactive Arduino based gloves which allows to control the sound in visual programming language Max MSP and map them into Ableton Live via Max For Live. The piece has been performed so far on two occasions, at the Gallery 46 in Whitechapel and at the underground event featuring performance art and experimental sound Chronic Illness XXI. During those performances I have revealed many flaws which occurred and started to troubleshoot and upgrade the project – mainly unstable Bluetooth connection and the significant fragility of assembled pieces.

The idea of Sonokinesis certainly doesn’t stop at the pair of Arduino gloves and I aim to develop more stable and durable version of gloves followed by other garments allowing to the performer to encompass other parts of their body.

I have been experimenting with flexible pads for knees and elbows and created simple accelerometer based headpiece triggering MIDI notes or samples. All those are connected to the central mini-computer attached to the lower back with the belt. Central mini-computer is this time based on different micro-controller ESP32 Wroom-32 and wireless connectivity is sorted with WiFi connection which proved itself more stable and faster than Bluetooth.

For knees and elbows I firstly assembled wearable pads based on the same flex sensors which I used for fingers of gloves. Unfortunately they appeared to be highly un-efficient when it comes to durability. Their function was limited by fragility and sensors started to break and rip after even single use which needs to be avoided at any cost since the piece must remain stable during performance and reusable. Also the cost of flex sensors is quite high considering its fragility (about £15 for one sensor).

Not long ago I have discovered conductive rubber which changes its conductive properties based on the stretch. I have tested a strip cut from the sheet attached to the knee pad and it proved itself very efficient, durable and in comparison to flex sensors also way more cheaper.