Session Chair: Mara Helmuth
Paper abstracts
Adriano C. Monteiro and Rafaela B. Pires: “Exploring DIY Cassava-Starch Bioplastic Interfaces with EFT-Based Touch Sensing in an Interactive Sound Installation”
This paper reports the design, implementation, and preliminary validation of a tangible interface that combines electrical field tomography (EFT), support vector machines (SVM), and cassava-starch bioplastics for an interactive sound installation. The system addresses two main challenges: 1) creating low-cost, large-area touch surfaces with flexible geometries, and 2) integrating bio-degradable materials into electronic interfaces while preserving sufficient electrical and mechanical stability for real-time performance. It consists of bioplastic interfaces, custom hardware for multiplexed current injection and voltage measurement, and a software pipeline for signal conditioning and SVM-based touch classification. Results show that the system can reliably distinguish a vocabulary of touch gestures on irregular bioplastic objects, while also revealing limitations related to long-term stability, calibration, and object-specific training. Finally, the paper discusses its integration into De/Re:Generation, a sound installation where bioplastic sculptures operate both as scenographic elements and as interactive surfaces within a vibro-acoustic environment inspired by the cicada life cycle.
Guanjun Qin, Yunxuan Jia and Neal Farwell: “Reimagining Athletic Gesture: Transforming Basketball Sound into Narrative Electroacoustic Music”
This paper presents FMVP, an electroacoustic fixed-media composition that transforms the sounds of basketball into a narrative of doubt, struggle, and redemption. Built entirely from field recordings captured on an indoor court, the work reimagines sport as a metaphor for resilience and creative endurance. Through granular time-stretching, spectral transformation, dynamic filtering, and spatial motion, physical gestures such as dribbling, sliding, and impact are translated into evolving sonic textures and large-scale form. Inspired by the career arc of NBA player Stephen Curry, the composition explores how kinetic rhythms can be reshaped into emotional trajectories, aligning with the conference theme of Innovation, Translation, Participation. Methodologically, the project sits within artistic research, using composition as a mode of inquiry into the relationship between embodied action and sound narrative. The paper discusses the conceptual framework, sound-design process, and structural strategies underpinning FMVP, arguing that everyday athletic environments offer rich material for electroacoustic storytelling and for rethinking how listeners participate in narratives constructed purely through sound.
Sitong Wu and Jinshuo Feng: “Gestalt: A Symbiotic Framework for Real-Time Collaboration between Performers and Mass Audiences”
This paper presents Gestalt, a real-time co-creative audiovisual performance system for professional performers and large-scale audiences. To address participation barriers, interaction latency, and unequal creative agency in Networked Music Performance (NMP), Gestalt adopts a browser-based heterogeneous architecture: performers retain structural control via MediaPipe-based motion capture, while 50 –200 audience members participate through a mobile web multi-touch interface. Centered on a mechanism termed “Translation,” the system performs a dual reconstruction. On the audio side, an activity-weighted aggregation algorithm transforms large volumes of discrete gestures into coherent musical textures. On the visual side, audience touch inputs are streamed in real time to a physics-driven WebGL particle stage, translating collective crowd activity into ordered audiovisual forms. Technically, the web frontend connects to a Max/MSP audio engine via OSC (Open Sound Control), and to the visual stage via WebSocket. Benchmark tests and pilot workshops examine how the architecture can preserve performer-led form while enabling audience aesthetic agency. Gestalt is released as an open-source platform for future interactive media creation.
