BUTTERFLY

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am now a man." - Chuang Tzu

In ‘Butterfly’, an interactive electroacoustic piece, I explored new techniques in shaping and transforming instrumental sounds played on the stage through programming I developed in MaxMSP and controlled by physical motions and gestures in real-time. The physical motions of the computer performer were tracked by a motion capture device and translated into sound processing parameters in the computer. The transformed sounds were then projected through a 3-dimensional set of loudspeakers surrounding the audience. In this piece, I also examined the application of progressing through and transforming 11-note symmetrical chords in the shape of a butterfly, the core harmonic formation of the piece.