Capture and express, question and understand: Gloves in gestural electronic music performance.

Abstract

Gesture-based musical performance with on-body sensing represents a particular case of wearable connection. Gloves and hand-sensing interfaces connected to real-time digital sound production and transformation processes enable empty-handed, expressive musical performance styles. In this article, the origins and developments of this practice as well as a specific use case are investigated. By taking the technical, cognitive, and cultural dimensions of this media performance as foundation, a reflection on the value, limitations, and opportunities of computational approaches to movement translation and analysis is carried out. The insights uncover how the multilayered, complex artistic situations produced by these performances are rich in intersections and represent potent amplifiers for investigating corporeal presence and affective engagement. This allows to identify problems and opportunities of existing research approaches and core issues to be solved in the domain of movement, music, interaction technology, and performance research.