Please disable AdBlock. CAN is an ad-supported site that takes hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to sustain.

We Play Bodies [Inspiration, Objects]

Created by Steffen Fiedler in collaboration with Ludwig Zeller and Charlotte Jarvis, We Play Bodies is a project in attempt to create “behaviouristic instruments” to transform people; physical, mental and emotional, into instruments that can be played by another individual. Whilst not directly related to applications as such, the project does nevertheless question our relationship to physical devices, suggesting (maybe) possible physical/digital interface iterations for the future?

‘We Play Bodies’ is a toolkit for performative audio generation. In this project we imagined our bodies as instruments. Those can be played by sensing vibrations and different states like moisture and arousal – every body sounds different. The project is about to transform people; physical, mental and emotional, into instruments that can be played by another individual, be it lover, mother or stranger.

Our devices were developed through improvisation and experimentation with a group of performative artists from different disciplines. This group navigated us towards the most demonstrative devises; those which aesthetically communicated and technologically delivered a kind of abstract and musical language. They also lead us to develop another group of objects to be used by the musicians to prompt their instruments into certain emotional states, much like working theatrical props. We designed the behaviouristic instruments to be theatrical, to communicate their roles as instruments and to openly admit their technological workings.

The short film below (test cycle 21) is a film project which originated from project.

Steffen Fiedler is a research based designer interested in new roles of technologies and their meaning. His focus is on the perception of the machines and their hidden life – the relations we have with them and the confidence we developed. As a Design Interactions student at the Royal College of Art he is currently located in London, UK. Besides his design studies he took part in several projects and focused on giving classes and workshops teaching design by code.

Related Posts

Posted on: 22/08/2010

Posted in: Inspiration, Objects

Post tags:

  • http://jaspervanloenen.com Jasper

    Great stuff and beautifully crafted. I like the style of the video as well.

  • yep

    Nicely shot video, and expensive-looking gadgets, but the artistic blurb confused me. Isn’t this just some very simple circuits reacting to body capacitance? Perhaps it’s more advanced, and it’s just the documentation that’s confusing.

  • http://jaspervanloenen.com Jasper

    I think you’re right, but does it matter? ;)

  • Tom

    Though I like the objects and the overall concept, I don’t understand this trend of “mentally challenged” style of video.. Probably inspired to “TECHNOLOGICAL DREAMS SERIES” by Dunne & Raby, I find it rather confusing here.