Pharosphones: interactive audience participation using light

This paper presents a novel approach to live performance that blends audience participation through the use of mobile phone lights tracking with music conduction. Drawing from the history of audience engagement in the arts and leveraging advancements in digital technology, we foster a dynamic and immersive interactive model that complements traditional musical conduction techniques. The performance was designed for a 270 degree concert hall which allows the audience to see each other. In this setting, by employing mobile phones not only as communication devices but as light emitters, we explore the symbiotic relationship among the various actors in a performance. To achieve that, we developed a computer vision system designed to translate the audience participation into shaping the sonic landscape of the performance. This process is underpinned by considerations of cybernetics and the feedback loop between human participants and technological systems, challenging conventional power structures within performance spaces. Through this work, we aim to expand the boundaries of interactive music creation, offering insights into the potential for technologically-facilitated audience entanglement and further the discussion with the context of music ecology.