Air play: Project creates music out of movement

Eindhoven – Sound On Intuition, a graduate project from design student Pieter-Jan Pieters, brings air guitarists and orchestra-less conductors one step closer to hearing their imaginary masterpieces in real life.

The project harnesses a range of electronic sensors attached to a user’s body to translate gestural movements and visual forms into music. Would-be composers might be unable to write a musical score, but they intuitively associate upward movement with notes played at a high pitch, for example.

The resulting music has a sound that only people with computer skills can usually achieve. ‘I want to make digital music tangible and personal again,’ Pieters tells LS:N Global. Comparing computers to robots, he asks why we need to learn a robot language when we could be expressing thoughts in a more human, direct way.

For more on the return of a physical element to digital music, read our Digi-tactile microtrend.