Sonification of fluidity -
An exploration of perceptual connotations of a particular movement feature

• In this study we conducted two experiments in order to investigate potential strategies for sonification of the expressive movement quality “fluidity” in dance: one perceptual rating experiment (1) in which five different sound models were evaluated on their ability to express fluidity, and one interactive experiment (2) in which participants adjusted parameters for the most fluid sound model in (1) and performed vocal sketching to two video recordings of contemporary dance. Sounds generated in the fluid condition occupied a low register and had darker, more muffled, timbres compared to the non-fluid condition, in which sounds were characterized by a higher spectral centroid and contained more noise. These results were further supported by qualitative data from interviews. The participants conceptualized fluidity as a property related to water, pitched sounds, wind, and continuous flow; non-fluidity had connotations of friction, struggle and effort. The biggest conceptual distinction between fluidity and non-fluidity was the dichotomy of “nature” and “technology”, “natural” and “unnatural”, or even “human” and “unhuman”. We suggest that these distinct connotations should be taken into account in future research focusing on the fluidity quality and its corresponding sonification.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Mediateknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Media Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

sonification

interactive sonification

fluidity

sound perception

movement perception

Media Technology

Medieteknik

Human-computer Interaction

Människa-datorinteraktion

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)