Seth Hunter

Abstract

Historically, synchronous movements in collective gatherings have been practiced in nearly every culture. We hypothesize that paired computer music instruments help foster group connections and increase intimacy between participants while exploring new modes of collaborative expression. We continue with a brief history of paired instruments and devices, whose functionality are dependent on the coordinated action of two or more people. We introduce Harmonia as a prototype of coupled audio-visual instruments, which also afford unconstrained gestural freedom for each individual. The devices provide feedback about the degree of synchrony between participants by measuring and mapping correlated movements to light and sound.