Dendrophone was a performance-based installation that took place in the spring of 2010 at two venues: CalArts and Oberlin. The installation was the result of an informal interdisciplinary collaboration between the two schools.

Dendrophone consisted of three parts: a projection surface in the form of a sculpted dead tree, a hexatonic series of robotic chimes, and an interactive wireless dance suit. In performance, Oberlin bassist Janie Cowan improvised on solo bass along with the robotic chimes, while CalArts dancer Darcy Lyons interacted with visuals projected onto the tree as the result of her movement. Co-designed by CalArts student Thomas East and myself, the installation premiered at CalArts in late April 2010 and went on to premiere at Oberlin several weeks later.

The robotic chimes were driven by an Arduino and electronics on loan from the Machine Orchestra. Of particular note was the dance suit I designed which which consisted of a battery back, xBee, Arduino, and six triple-axis accelerometer/gyro combos positioned at major joints; the number and position of sensors were the result of an exploration of the many existing interactive suits that have been published or documented. The sensors were attached to the dancer’s body via neoprene straps with velcro and then wired to a central location on the dancer’s lower back. The xBee communicated with a laptop running Processing which performed basic gesture recognition in order to control the visuals.