Biophysical Music
Expanding Donnarumma’s work on biophysical music, each of the pieces in the 7 Configurations features a interactive musical composition created by the artist by amplifying and digitally processing sounds from the performers’ bodies. Using the XTH Sense, a wearable biosensor created by Donnarumma, the sounds of muscle contractions, blood flowing and bones crackling of the performers are captured and fed to a custom software. The software enables performers to manipulate their own bodily sounds in real time, creating improvised music that is inherently coupled with their movements and physicality.
These bodily sounds, also known as mechanomyograms, are subcutaneous mechanical oscillations (i.e. acoustic sounds) produced by muscle fibres and blood vessels; they are composed of very low-frequency vibrations. These are captured by the XTH Sense through chip microphones on the skin surface, and are fed to a computer in real time. A custom software system deploys mathematical and learning models to understand and interact with the muscular activity of the performer’s body.
Psychoacoustics
Using sound design techniques based on psychoacoustics, Donnarumma treats the sounds of the performers’ bodies so as to create acoustic effects which have tangible resonances on the bodies of the audience members. When a performer’s muscle vibration becomes tangible sound breaching into the outer world, it invades the audience members’ bodies through their ears, skin, and muscle sensory receptors. The fleshly sound makes their muscles resonate, establishing a nexus between player and audience.
A recurring musical idiom of the 7 Configurations is the use of particular rhythms and sonic forms that induce a sense of flow, or entrainment, in both the audience and the performer. The composition of pulsating sound forms, combined with the bodily configurations on stage, aims to alter and heighten the visitor’s perception. In so doing, the experience of each piece becomes akin to a ritual; a ritual of bodies, machines, sounds and lights to mark the existence of the new bodies on stage.