Opposites Attract, for PLaY+SPaCE System and Seven Dancers

Abstract

The musical "instrument" utilised in Opposites Attract is an ultrasonic sensing system using eight sensors to detect the positions of the dancers in the performance space. The data from the sensors is relayed to a computer and used to trigger individual sounds and musical events via speakers in the auditorium. The sensors themselves are arranged to form a grid, and work like eight large invisible piano keyboards that criss-cross the space. As the dancers move nearer to and further away from each sensor, differing sounds are heard, just as higher and lower sounds are heard as one moves up and down on a keyboard. In Opposites Attract the dancers control 72 individual triggering points (like keyboard keys) within the performance space, the 72 points triggering differing sets of sounds as the work progresses from one section to the next.