Gestural Listening: Sound, Touch, and the Body

Join New Media artist, Olive Yu, for Gestural Listening at Pioneer Works! This hands-on workshop explores sound as a product of gesture.
About this Event

Drawing conceptual inspiration from the Ash Fure exhibition in Pioneer Works Main Hall, ANIMAL, the workshop invites participants to think of the body as a sensing and sound-making system—where pressure, proximity, repetition, and movement function as compositional material.

Participants will experiment with simple touch-based interfaces, capacitive sensing, and recording techniques to translate physical gestures into sound. Using a small sensor-based system, participants discover how the body itself - its tilt, reach, and movement - can become a musical instrument. The emphasis is on process, listening, and awareness, rather than technical mastery or musical training.

Each participant receives their own electronics kit and will assemble a circuit during the workshop, guided step by step. All firmware is provided for the session. Sensor data is transmitted to a computer and mapped in Ableton Live. Mapping templates are provided, with room for personal adjustment and experimentation.

No prior experience with electronics or music technology is needed. If you use Ableton Live, please bring a laptop with an active account. If you're new to Ableton, a free trial is a great way to get started before the workshop.

Core components provided  (per participant)

• Microcontroller(Teensy / Arduino Nano / similar — small, USB-powered)
• 9DoF sensor (IMU)For orientation, tilt, rotation, and subtle bodily movement
• Time-of-Flight (ToF) distance sensorFor proximity, reach, and spatial gesture
• Breadboard + jumper wiresEmphasize non-soldered, reversible experimentation
• USB cable

Software

• Pre-written firmware (you provide)
• • Reads sensor data
  • Sends MIDI or OSC over USB
• Ableton Live (you provide)
• • Simple instrument rack
  • Pre-mapped parameters (filter, density, pitch, texture)