RaveNET: connecting people and exploring liminal space through wearable networks in music performance
conference contribution
posted on 2025-01-16, 09:33authored byRachel Freire, Valentin Martinez-Missir, Courtney ReedCourtney Reed, Paul Strohmeier
RaveNET connects people to music, enabling musicians to modulate sound using signals produced by their own bodies or the bodies of others. We present three wearable prototype nodes in an inaugural RaveNET performance: Bones, an anti-corset, uses capacitive sensing to detect stretch as the singer breathes. Tendons, a half-glove, measures galvanic skin response, pulse, and movement of the bass player's hands. Veins, a cap with electrodes for surface electromyography, captures the facial expressions of the drum machine operator. These signals are filtered, normalized, and amplified to control voltage levels to modulate sound. Together, musicians and nodes form RaveNET and engage with shared liminal experiences. In designing these wearables and evaluating them in performance, we reflect on our creative processes, spaces between our different bodies, our presence and control within the network, and how this made us adapt our movements in order to be noticed and heard.
Funding
COSMOS: Computational Shaping and Modeling of Musical Structures