Artist Statement (also Workshop Statement)

WEARABLE EXPERIENCE

‘Ensemble’ was also presented as a workshop for children, with Christina Gadegaard Nilsen

‘ensemble’ is a set of wearable wireless musical controllers created for children. It investigates the use of simple sensors as a means of playing a piece of electronic music, and is played by a group of children in a installation/ workshop environment.

A small group of children are playing in a theatre space. One of them, a four year old boy, is carefully investigating a man’s hat. The hat is making a singing sound that changes pitch when it is moved. He plays with it on his own turning the hat slowly or shaking it and listening to the different qualities of the sound, changing from calm singing to percussive noises.

‘ensemble’ has been created to investigate how analogue sensors in tangible interfaces are perceived and understood through the emerging intuitions of children. Each piece of clothing includes a simple sensor that modifies a sound or a voice. The sensor is incorporated into a garment which posesses its own individual possibilities for movement and control… The position of a mans hat, the swoosh of a dress, the darkness inside a Ladies bag…

‘ensemble’ is a ‘walk-in’, participatory installation. There is no audience -everybody plays, creating is a Live sound-piece played by the orchestra of those who dress up,

‘ensemble’ was developed at STEIM by Kristina Andersen with assistance from Frank Balde, Jorgen Brinkman and Michel Waisvisz.

• Kristina Andersen works with interactions and concepts to create unusual objects, protocols and experiences using iterative processes informed by games and play. She is currently artist in residence at the STEIM Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (Amsterdam, NL) .

Full document (PDF) p. 83