PROGRAM NOTE

In the growing field of embodied music cognition, advances in biometric sensing have provided windows into key questions of human musicality and sound perception. What role does the body play in our encounters with music? What mechanisms govern our experiences of sound not only as an auditory phenomenon, but also as a tactile and even proprioceptive one? Bringing together researchers and artists at MIT and beyond, Organology couples collaborative music-making with biometric sensing technologies to tap into the personal and physiological dimensions of some of these questions from cross-cultural perspectives.

Many of the sounds you hear in Organology are powered by the ongoing BioSynth project, an interdisciplinary effort to design an electronic instrument that transforms physiological signals into musical information. Measurements of the players’ biometrics, captured by an array of mounted and wearable sensors, shape the performance by modulating parameters of the sound, including delay, distortion, tempo, and more. Three improvisatory episodes entitled “Gait,” “Breath,” and “Pulse” explore measurements of performers’ fluctuating movements, breathing patterns, and heart rates, respectively, all of which the audience can view on a shared dashboard. But it’s not only ensemble members in control: as a nod to the way that the presence of bodies can drastically alter the acoustics of a space, an infrared camera capturing average body temperatures across the entire room enables audience members to subtly influence reverb effects over the course of the performance.

With ensemble members and audience alike each controlling a distinct “organ”—that is, a unique component of the Frankensteinian BioSynth system—the collective comes to represent one dynamic body, a body that emerges from mindful musical collaboration and latent physiological resonance.
—J. Shand

SCORE EXCERPTS

The score combines traditional notation, written prompts for the performers, and Max/MSP for playback of fixed media and live improvisation with sensors.

FULL RECORDING (ARCHIVAL)

A complete recording of the premiere performance on October 19th, 2023. Video footage compiled and edited by Manuel Cherep, with archival audio by Ana Schon.