Physicality and Feedback: A Focus on the Body in the Performance of Electronic Music

Musical performance in a cultural context has always been inextricably linked to the human body, yet, the body has played only a minor role in the creation and performance of electronic music.This paper will consider aesthetic and technical issues relating to: (1) the social/cultural construction of contexts for chamber music and dance; (2) our construction of gestural "composed instruments" and integrated sonic display devices; (3) concepts of the integration of the dancing body and the musical body; and (4) new approaches to interactive music and improvisation in a "composed context."Our approach prioritizes music as "activity" in both instrument design and sonic display.We find physicality, feedback, and gesture-the reintegration of the body in electronic music-are all key to maintaining and extending musical/social traditions within a technological context.