Gibberish conversations about openness to each other

The installation (work in progress) is a simulation of a conversation/discussion. Words have been removed and the users must communicate using the tonal melodies that are found in speak. They do so by by hand gestures. It’s up to the users to decide how to communicate. They can be polite and friendly and listen to each other or they can be rude and hysterical and interrupt each other.

The installation

When we talk, we use words, body language and voice. The voice is used to pronounce the words, but also to express tone melodies, tone quality, volume and pauses. The installation removes the words and focuses on the expression of the voice and the body language. The participants of the discussion are left with only unarticulated sound and gestures.

Three people at a time can sit by the discussion table and have a discussion. They each control their own voice sounds with gestures that controls different parameters, each on their own axis:
Sounds / speed / agitation / volume

Moving the left hand (up/down + sideways) produces different samples at different volume
Moving the right hand (up/down + sideways) produces different agitation levels at different speeds.
The agitation level changes both the sound quality and the sample set, thus producing a high number of variations.

The gesture movement is tracked by LEAP motion devices and the tracking information is processed in Bidule.

The participants will investigate the concept of discussion in a playful manner, but it’s completely up to them to decide how it will turn out. They might feel encouraged to try out different approaches to discussing, and maybe they will discover how to listen to and react on each others’ voices in order to create a meaningful discussion.


So far, I have recorded the following voices for the installation:
Søren Raagaard, Ulf Johannesson, Anders Børup, Julie Bjerrum Fischer

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