Interactive art helps us extract impulses from our brains, thread by thread, and enact them in the world. Music takes this medium into mind-bending heights. What if we were able to transform any surface into a living, breathing musical instrument? Emerging designer and musician Felix Faire recently did just that with Contact, an acoustic Leap Motion experiment created for the Royal Academy’s “Sensing Spaces” exhibition.
What if we were able to transform any surface into a living, breathing musical instrument? Click To TweetAs a first-year architecture student, Faire was struck by how listening to musical progressions as you walk through a space affects the way you move, so he designed an entire concert hall and gallery in the linear structure of a sonata. These initial musings grew into a much larger project on spatial music perception entitled “Music Aided Design.” It was then that coding became an integral part of Felix’s creative life, and he knew 3D motion control would become an essential exploratory engine for his thesis.
“The fidelity of the Leap Motion made me realize this kind of device could track even more subtle musical articulations, and perhaps even be used as a three-dimensional instrument in itself,” Faire told us. “Now I understand more of what is possible with Leap Motion. I have ambitions to try much more complex gestures and motions in future projects.”
Music extracts impulses from our brains, thread by thread, and brings them into the world. Click To TweetFor Contact, Felix used hand height, finger count, and a squeezing gesture to trigger various effects in the loop – the visual output influencing how the audience attempt to interact with the sound waves. “Abstract audiovisual synchronicity, while extremely elusive, can be a very exciting and compelling experience,” Felix concluded.
“Sensing Spaces” will continue to run at the Royal Academy in London through April 6th, 2014. It features architectural practices from six countries spanning four continents. If you plan to attend, be sure to tweet impressions, images, or video from your experience to @LeapMotion using the hashtag #SensingSpaces.