Unboxing: Public-Space Performance With Wearable-Sensors And SuperCollider

This piece is an mobile outdoor performance where a dancer wearing mobile wireless IMU sensors controls sound generated by a laptop through their movements. The performance is mobile, and can take place in any available public space. The dancer's movements acquired by the sensors drive sound generation algorithms running on SuperCollider and output from a mobile speaker. Since all the hardware is commercially available and relatively inexpensive, this system is easy to build. Through this work, we are showing that a performance that is not bound by location is possible through a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-construct performance system. The title "Unboxing" refers to escaping from the economic, social, political, and artistic constraints of conventional performances. It also alludes to "unboxing" as an internet meme in online videos where one does not know what is contained in the box before it is opened - as the performance data and the resulting sound structures cannot be evaluated beforehand. This project aims to open up computer music creativity to a wider audience through frugal technology and escape Western-centric concepts of music and dances. As alternative, we propose the term "electronic sound performance".