Liminal Gesture

Exploring the Dimension of Gesture in Electroacoustic Music: A reflection on
expanded listening

This project delves into the relationship between interactive electroacoustic music, sonic and kinetic gesture, exploring their connection with meaning, structures, content, and figures. It reflects deeply on sonic gestures, inexorably linked to the corporeal.

We recognize that gestures need attentive listening to play a leading role in sound creation. Listening transcends the merely audible; it is felt and smelled. This leads to a profound exploration of the epistemology and ontology of listening. Our goal is to challenge the paradigms in which we, as humans, frame the auditory experience.

The project poses a fundamental question: Is bodily and kinetic gesture also a sonic gesture, a sound technology, or a listening technology? Gesture, though brief and ephemeral, carries profound meaning and contributes to narrative construction through its sequence. We seek to clarify which aspects of sound creation are susceptible to automation while preserving the essence of gesture in electroacoustic and interactive music. This project is a journey into the depths of an expanded way of listening, where gesture and sound intertwine in a creative dance that challenges the boundaries of automation, aiming to expand the understanding of music and sound creation in a world driven by algorithms and technology.

The project focuses on creating an interactive sound installation that enables an expanded listening experience through bodily and kinetic gestures. Through a catalog of gestures, both sonic and kinetic, this system will not only interact with sound but also allow for sound generation through physical movement. The project seeks to delve into the relationship between corporeal and sonic gestures in the context of electroacoustic music composition, unveiling new layers of complexity in auditory perception.

The research goal is to explore and deeply understand how corporeal and sonic gestures can enhance our listening experience through levels of interactivity. It aims to analyze how the body can actively participate in the creation, dialogue, and modulation of sound. The idea that the body not only reacts to sound but also generates it through movement is a key facet of the expanded listening experience we aim to explore.