Influx is a soft wearable technology, that promotes self-expression in an emergent musical ecosystem through body-syntonic interactions between music, materiality, and movement. Envisioned in the context of nightlife environments, it adopts the role of a second skin and fosters a novel method of embodied collaboration between body movements and music.

 

The liquid inside the wearable navigates through a maze-like structure based on the user’s movements, which further prompts them to engage more intuitively due to its tactile nature. The flow of liquid initiates an interaction between the user and the sonic output through variations in the brightness values of photoresistors embedded into the wearable, which communicate with an evolutionary music system to curate the music of the environment. This heuristic system is designed to be adaptive to both single and multi-user ecosystems.

Figure 1: The evolution of music through the user’s movement explored through generations of sound-wheels 

Figure 2: Technical lines exploring the shape and pattern of the wearable

Motivated by the desire for increased social engagements following the pandemic, Influx aspires to be utilized as a tool for social collaboration in nightclubs by developing a distinctive method of interaction between the audience and the music, becoming a ‘liquid identity’. Each with their own manner of expressing themselves, users serve as agents of collaboration by contributing unique elements of music through their movements to create an evolving sound ecology together within this aesthetically potent setting.

Influx is designed speculatively as a wearable for anybody, which can be personalized as an accessory suitable to the user’s preference.

Figure 3: The user in movement, creating an evolving sound ecology through their self-expression

Figure 4: User exploring the tactility and intimacy of Influx wearable, its pattern and liquid within in

PROCESS PICTURES:

Figure 5: Project timeline

Figure 6: Conceptual sketches exploring personification of the wearable and possible future body placements

Figure 7: Making of

KEY REFERENCES:

Ahmed S. (2006) Queer phenomenology. Durham: Duke University Press Books

Alaimo S., Hekman S. (2008) Material Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

McCormack, J & Eldrige, A & Dorin, A & Mcilwain,P. (2009). The Oxford handbook of computer music. In Dean, R. T. (Ed.), Generative Algorithms for Making Music

Fukumoto, M. (2010). Interactive Evolutionary Computation utilizing subjective evaluation and physiological information as evaluation value. 2874 – 2879.

Grenn M. S. (2007) Self-expression. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Haraway D. J. (1985) Cyborg Manifesto. London: Routledge

Hayashida,N & Takagi,H. (2002) “Acceleration of EC convergence with landscape visualization and human intervention”. Applied Soft Computing.vol. 1.

Koga, Shinpei & Inoue, Takafumi & Fukumoto, Makoto. (2013). A Proposal for Intervention by User in Interactive Genetic Algorithm for Creation of Music Melody. IEEJ Transactions on Electronics, Information and Systems.

Russel L. (2020) Glitch Feminism. London: Verso