TOUCH ME

Live performers thrive on feedback from their audiences but they generally don't get this feedback until the end of the performance. Any feedback they get during the performance doesn't dramatically affect the performance for others. One exception to this might be comedians where the audience participates through laughter. A comedian feeds off this to elaborate more in parts that receive a lot of laughter and the audience members feed off each other as laughter is contagious.

I thought it would be interesting to design something that allowed a similar interaction between the audience and a dancer. I created a piece of touch and gesture sensitive clothing that can be worn by the performer but controlled by other individuals responding to their performance.

A dancer connects with a piece of music and move their body to express that music to whoever is watching them. The watcher is then able to respond to the performance by controlling visual and audio elements on the dancers clothing. This feedback affects the dancer's performance but also changes the experience for other members of the audience. In effect individuals watching the dancer can become contributors to the performance and not just a spectators.