As an artist and researcher they have made a contribution to the TIME (Textile Interface for Musical Expression) community through a project that focuses on self-expression, embodiment and identity. They use fashion, not only as a mark of identity and expression, but as a dimension that gives a certain quality to how you feel when you interact with other people. The pattern of the wearable is for examples taken from a dress given to them by a colleague in the electronic music scene, when they decided to move countries. Gold studs attached to black buttons are integrated into the circuit, each mapped to trigger custom samples when touched. Their placement around the heart area personalizes the instrument, creating a tactile and sensorial experience for the performer. Inspired by the hand on heart meditation and musical expression as a tool for storytelling and resistance, the instrument seeks to challenge the notion of instruments existing as external units, and curate an opportunity to place a hand on the heart while practicing, in an industry that can be overwhelming. With the gesture incorporated in the process, the interaction guides towards bodily sensory sensation while creating an intimate feedback loop involving sound and ECG-data.

The instrument are created with THE SOURCE, and through electrodes, the system captures the performer’s heartbeat, translating their BPM data into a flanger effect that filters and modulates the sound.

SensualMap 2.0 meets THE SOURCE is a dialogue between body and sound, where identity, body and sound become a continuous extension of each other.

Azi Tadayoni extends gratitude to professor Dan Overholt for supervising the project and to Hamid Tadayoni for the drum sample included in the visual presentation.