Proceedings ICMC|SMC|2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece Modes of Sonic Interaction in Circus: Three Proofs of Concept Ludvig Elblaus Maurizio Goina KTH Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology [email protected] [email protected] Marie-Andree´ Robitaille Roberto Bresin Stockholm University of the Arts KTH Royal Institute of Technology marie-andree.robitaille [email protected] @doch.uniarts.se ABSTRACT of technology in circus, with a special focus on sound and interaction. The art of circus is a vibrant and competitive culture that Practice-based artistic research in circus offers an oppor- embraces new tools and technology. In this paper, a series tunity to generate new modes of creation, composition and of exploratory design processes resulting in proofs of con- expression in circus. This paper focuses on using tech- cepts are presented, showing strategies for effective use of nology that will enable performers to interactively control three different modes of sonic interaction in contemporary computer generated sounds by means of their own body. circus. Each design process is based on participatory stu- Used in this manner, interactive sonification [1], and re- dio work, involving professional circus artists. All of the lated artistic practices, can be a tool to overcome the stan- proofs of concepts have been evaluated, both with studio dardized traditional formats of circus, re-invent choreo- studies and public circus performances, taking the work graphic methods and to redefine the use of music and sound beyond theoretical laboratory projects and properly engag- support in circus expression. Furthermore, by novel use ing the practice and culture of contemporary circus. of technology in circus, the traditional hierarchy in the The first exploration uses a contortionist’s extreme bod- creation of circus oeuvre is challenged. Involving circus ily manipulation as inspiration for sonic manipulations in artists to engage in the development of new tools gives au- an accompanying piece of music. The second exploration thorship status to the circus artist, as opposed to the role of uses electric amplification of acoustic sounds as a transfor- disposable interpret. mative enhancement of existing elements of circus perfor- In this article we present in chronological order three ex- mance. Finally, a sensor based system of real-time soni- ploratory design processes that demonstrate different modes fication of body gestures is explored and ideas from the of integration of sound in circus, extending beyond the sonification of dance are translated into the realm of cir- practice of performing to a set musical performance. Each cus. exploration has informed the design of the next one. The first exploration is a modern update of the attentive 1. INTRODUCTION accompaniment that has been used in the circus tradition. In the ever evolving art of circus, the use of new tools and Here the musical ensemble is substituted with signal pro- technologies is wide spread. Circus practice is open to cessing that bends a well known musical performance as a new ideas and is fuelled by a spirit of competition, mak- contortionist’s body is being bent on stage. ing new forms of expression highly sought after. The KTH The second exploration uses microphones to bridge the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has collaborated sonic divide between performer and audience, allowing for with University of Dance and Circus, a part of Stockholm the faint but revealing sounds of strain on both equipment University of the Arts in the Gyno¨ıdes Project. Gyno¨ıdes and performer to be communicated to the audience. Project is an academic line of enquiry through artistic prac- Finally, the third exploration, an evolved synthesis of the tice lead by circus specialist and choreograph/artistic di- first two proofs of concepts is presented. Here the move- rector Marie-Andree´ Robitaille (hereinafter referred to as ments of the circus performer is turned into sound via mo- MAR). The project raises the question of women agency tion capture technology based on wearable sensors. in the circus arts and intervenes in thestructure of circus- practice to produce, test and describe feminist strategies in circus composition 1 . The project integrates novel use 2. BACKGROUND 1 www.cirkusperspektiv.se Since the creation of modern circus in England by Philip Astley in 1770, music has been an important feature [2]. Copyright: c 2014 Ludvig Elblaus et al. This is an open-access article distributed Up to the 1970s, the screamers, or circus marches, are typ- under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which ical of the time period and the genre [3]. In the early 1970s, permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided circus experienced a new revolution, in the wake of the po- the original author and source are credited. litical and social upheavals of the late 1960s. - 1698 - Proceedings ICMC|SMC|2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece The blending of traditional circus practices with contem- 4. MODES OF SONIC INTERACTION IN CIRCUS porary aesthetic sensibilities has revitalised the art of cir- In this section we present three proofs of concept in which cus. Even though the music we hear in contemporary cir- interactive sonification has been used for the design of sonic cus covers a wide variety of genres, e.g., rock, electronic interaction for augmenting the performance of circus artists. popular music, manouche or gypsy jazz, it still seem to Sonic interaction has been used as a mean for accompany- serve the same purpose; music follows the action on stage ing, amplifying, and interacting with the performances. and stirs up the audience during the show. Music is used for setting the mood of the audience, indicating the tempo of the acts, highlighting specific tricks, accentuating the 4.1 Exploration 1: Accompaniment suspense of the anticipation and marking the success of it. The first exploratory design process examined the manip- Overall music is there to enhance the performance by em- ulation of sound as a metaphor for the manipulation of ulating its dramaturgical development. the body. In 2011 to 2013, within the explorations of the Music can be both a live performance or a recorded one. Gyno¨ıdes Project, Betaˆ Test II-III-IV (BT2, BT3, BT4), If it is played live or manipulated in real time, a relation- the circus artist Manda Rydman was doing contortion, a ship between the music and the performance must be de- form of extremely flexible acrobatics, as can be seen in cided upon. The music can either be oblivious of the per- Figure 1. The appeal of the discipline of contortion has formance on stage and thus exist in parallel or as a back- been described as the fascination for otherness and the dual ground to the performance, or it can be continuously adapted simultaneous feelings of estrangement and connection ex- to fit the performance as it progresses. This is not a binary perienced by spectators, both in regards to the performers’ option but rather a continuous scale between the two ex- bodies and their own [8, 9]. To create a similar acoustic es- tremes. Even by the simple act of synchronising the be- trangement to accompany and heighten the performance, a ginning and end of the music with the beginning and end very well known piece of music was to be used as an ac- of the performance, one creates a more complex relation- companiment, but it was to be bent in a fashion similar to ship between the music and circus performance. From this the bodily contortions of the circus artist. The chosen piece point one can add complexity until all aspects of the music was the prelude of J.S. Bach’s Suite for Solo Cello no. 1 are tied those of the circus performance. in G major, and the chosen method of sonic manipulation was the changing of the playback speed. In BT2, BT3 and BT5, an engineer 2 would perform the filtering, in real-time, as a response to the acrobats move- 3. RELATED WORK ments, using a Korg Kaoss Pad. In BT4 another engineer 3 used a similar system build in the SuperCollider program- In recent years a few but relevant studies on the use of ming language 4 . music and sound in relation to specific circus disciplines As the skill of the engineer increased with rehearsals, have been conducted and they are presented and discussed the manipulated music worked as a system for interactive briefly in this section. 2 Niklas Blomberg Juggling has been the use case of two studies. In a first 3 Ludvig Elblaus study, Bovermann and colleagues have developed a system 4 http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/ for real time auditory monitoring of juggling patterns [4]. They explored different approaches to gain insight into the movements and possible applications in both training and juggling performance of single-juggler patterns. In partic- ular, positions and movements of the clubs could be tracked and sonified in real-time using a motion capture system. In a second study on juggling, the positions and gestures of four performers on a stage were used as parameters for generating musical tones while juggling [5]. In another project, Hummel and co-workers [6] investigated the use of sonic feedback in training practice applied to the case of the German wheel. The movements of the wheel were cap- tured by sensors and sonified. It was found that the use of sound could improve performance and accelerate learning especially for novice learners. Jay Gilligan and Luke Wilson, professional jugglers and prominent leaders of the international innovative juggling movement, have been investigating the relation between juggling and music, in particular by analysing the trans- lation of juggling into music generated by manipulation of objects on a tabletop tangible interface such as the re- Figure 1.