Embodied Research Methods in Music & Sound
Study Day, 11 June 2025
SPARC, Department of Performing Arts
City St George’s, University of London
Embedding the Body: Wearable Instrument Design for Embodied Collaboration
This presentation and demonstration introduces a wearable instrument designed for musicians and dancers, which explores touch, movement, and agency. Built on a Teensy development board, the instrument processes audio files triggered via contact points integrated into clothing. The wearer’s body position dynamically shapes the audio processing via a motion sensor, making the instrument responsive to physical movement and facilitating an embodied interaction.
This instrument as a work-in-progress is being designed and explored through collaborations with dancers, musicians, and improvisors, including the Sensor Dress project with Dr Iris Garrelfs. Each version of the instrument is designed to be adaptable for specific collaborations, allowing the wearer the ability to easily customise parameters, such as touch sensitivity. Score information can be embedded to modify parameter ranges, adding temporality to the instrument. Different instrument versions highlight these explorations, while Sensor Shirt and Sensor Dress emphasise touch between the garment and the body, SenseOut extends interaction to the garment's surface and exterior of the
body.
The development process is itself an embodied practice, involving iteratively adjusting the instrument based on physical interaction. This approach embeds the body within the instrument’s design, raising questions about agency, control, and intention in human-instrument relationships. Multiple meanings of "wearable" are also explored, not only as something worn by a performer, but as a body worn by an instrument and as a site where agency is negotiated between body and technology.