Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

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

BronzeElectronica Grand Public· 2021

Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable

by Lihsing Wang and Yulin Tsai

Client: Lihsing Wang

A' Design Award de Bronze Winner in Electronica Grand Public Category

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The Design

About Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable

Body Voice es un instrument portable que permet als dançaires de crear musica a travèrs de lors movements de dança. Lo kit inclutz de pinças sens fial, una aplicacion mobila e un altaparlant Bluetooth. Cada pinça conten un girroscòpi e un sensor d'acceleracion e pòt èsser fixada onte que siá sul còs, generalament suls braces e las cambas. Las donadas de movement son enviadas a un telefòn mobil per Bluetooth, e l'aplicacion convertís los movements en son. Lo son es jogat a travèrs de l'altaparlant Bluetooth. Las pinças se cargan sens fial. Body Voice inversa la relacion abituala entre la musica e la dança.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award de Bronze

Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable a ganhat la distincion A' Design Award de Bronze, una reconeissença plan prestigiosa acordada a de designs excellents que se destrian per la creativitat, l'engenh e la finessa. Los ganhaires del Bronze son d'artefactes largament abils e sorprenentament creatius que provan la vasta experiéncia, l'imaginacion e l'engenhositat de lors designers. S'espèra que Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable siá un objècte fòrça considerat, admirat e estimat, notablament professional e innovant. Aqueste design ganhaire de la distincion A' Design Award de Bronze integra las melhoras practicas de l'art, de la sciéncia, del design e de la tecnologia e es excellent per son atencion al detalh. Body Voice Instrument Musical Portable satisfa esplendidament los besonhs, toca los desirs, encanta los sentiments e interèssa 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