Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award de Bronze in Electrònica de Consum Competition Category.

BronzeElectrònica de Consum· 2021

Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil

by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

Client: Lihsing Wang

A' Design Award de Bronze Winner in Electrònica de Consum Category

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The Design

About Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil

Book Text: Body Voice és un instrument portàtil que permet als ballarins crear música a través dels seus moviments de dansa. El conjunt inclou clips sense fil, una aplicació mòbil i un altaveu Bluetooth. Cada clip conté un giroscopi i un sensor d'acceleració, i es pot fixar a qualsevol part del cos, normalment als braços i les cames. Les dades de moviment s'envien a un telèfon mòbil mitjançant Bluetooth, i l'aplicació converteix els moviments en so. El so es reprodueix a través de l'altaveu Bluetooth. Els clips es carreguen sense fil. Body Voice inverteix la relació habitual entre música i dansa.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Bronze

Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil és un guanyador del guardó A' Design Award de Bronze, un reconeixement altament prestigiós concedit a dissenys sobresortints que es distingeixen per la creativitat, l'enginy i l'astúcia. Els guanyadors de Bronze són artefactes ampliament hàbils i sorprenentment creatius que autentiquen la vasta experiència, la imaginació i el recurs dels seus dissenyadors. Es preveu que Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil sigui un objecte molt apreciat, admirat i estimat, notablement professional i innovador. Aquest disseny guanyador del guardó A' Design Award de Bronze incorpora les millors pràctiques de l'art, la ciència, el disseny i la tecnologia i és excel·lent per la seva atenció al detall. Body Voice Instrument Musical Portàtil satisfà esplèndidament les necessitats, toca els desitjos, encisa els sentiments i crida la curiositat.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: The Body Voice is driven by technology, a wearable instrument that allows dancers to create music through their dance moves. Body voice is a set of designs, including the Clips, an App, and a Bluetooth speaker. The wireless Bluetooth clips are motion sensors that clip anywhere on dancer's bodies to collect their movements digitally and send them to the mobile phone. The user modifies it on an App where converts movements into music and plays it on the Bluetooth speaker.
Dimensions & Packaging: A single clip device, size:30*24*14.6mm. The speaker, size:140*125*180.4mm. The wireless charging, size:85*62*65.3mm. The Unity engine, Bluetooth 3.0.
Tags: Wireless, sound, movement, innovation, digital device, dance, instrument.
Production Technology: The wireless clips use a gyro-sensor and acceleration sensor to detect dance moves then transmit them to a mobile phone via Bluetooth 3.0 chip. The clips are charged wirelessly. And the App is driven by Unity software for converting movements to sounds. The speaker connects to a mobile phone by Bluetooth.
Design Challenge: In the most beginning, I considered hands as the way to express body emotion. Thus, I decided to design a product that can detect hand gestures and movements. Gloves, I used several sensors inserted in them for capturing the movements of hands and send the electronic signal to a computer for analyzing the gestures guided by the specific sound effect. However, after testing this prototype on dancers and receiving feedback from them, I decided to use a different way to capture the dance move; finally, using a clip functions as a motion detector gained great feedback from the users.
Research: If dancing is no longer a movement to follow music but to create music? Music and dance, in the general point of view, usually follow the rhythm of the music. Our brain processes the signal of music and reacts through the body. However, is it possible to reverse this process? In other words, our dance movements or gestures can create sounds and music? The Body Voice is a set of digital devices for dancers to create music through their dancing. Driven by technology, a wearable instrument reveals new possibilities in the art of dance.
Inspiration: Although music and dance are two art forms, dance often follows the rhythm of the music. The dancer’s creation is based on others, musicians, and work. It is contributed to a second creation. What if dance is no longer a movement that follows the music but creates music? The body voice subverts the conventional relationship between music and dance, redefines the possibility of free creations by analyzing dance’s movement, and converts it into music.
Project Duration: The project began in Taiwan in November 2017 and was completed Taiwan in June 2018.
Operation Flow: Open the Body Voice’s App for pairing your phone with the Clips. You can apply the Clips anywhere on your body, usually arms and legs, to receive your movements and transmit them to analysis on an App where you can define a dance move correspond to sound, customize your actions and music tracks. Choose the solo mode or ensemble mode to play it yourself or with friends. The solo runs on a smartphone, but the ensemble needs to connect each user’s phone to a computer and run on Unity.
Team Members: Lihsing Wang
Yulin Tsai
Image Credits: Image #1：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #2：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #3：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #4：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018.
Image #5：Designer Lihsing Wang, Body Voice, 2018