As part of my doctoral research at the department of neurophysiology and pathophysiology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, I conducted two experiments on experiential and movement dynamics during social interactions: the BallGame and the Sonified MirrorGame. Here, I present the basic setup of the Sonified MirrorGame.
In the Sonified MirrorGame experiment, two players each used a pen and tablet to coordinate the movement of two simple avatars along a virtual line. Depending on where, how fast, and how far apart players moved along the line, they further produced a sound: when close together, the avatars prompted orchestra sounds of string or wind instruments. When further apart, the sound feedback turned into a noisy ‘distance signal’ – similar to an automated parking assistant.
During half of the time, players were assigned leader-follower roles: one person was told to lead the movement, the other to follow their partner. For the other half of the time, players jointly improvised: no clear roles were assigned – players tried to find interesting movements and sounds together.
Below you can download three examples of the sounds players produced during this game:
(1) A leader-follower trial:
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
(2) A rather calm / slow movement joint improvisation trial:
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
(3) A more wildly explorative joint improvisation trial. Players worked creatively with the ‘noisy’ distance sound – see e.g. min 1:04: