SICIB: An Interactive Music Composition System Using Body Movements

Traditionally, music and dance have been comple-mentary arts. However, their integration has notalways been entirely satisfactory. In general, adancer must conform movements to a predefinedpiece of music, leaving very little room for impro-visational creativity. In this article, a system calledSICIB—capable of music composition, improvisa-tion, and performance using body movements—isdescribed. SICIB uses data from sensors attached todancers and “if-then” rules to couple choreo-graphic gestures with music. The article describesthe choreographic elements considered by the sys-tem (such as position, velocity, acceleration, curva-ture, and torsion of movements, jumps, etc.), aswell as the musical elements that can be affectedby them (e.g., intensity, tone, music sequences,etc.) through two different music composition sys-tems: Escamol and Aura. The choreographic infor-mation obtained from the sensors, the musicalcapabilities of the music composition systems, anda simple rule-based coupling mechanism offersgood opportunities for interaction between chore-ographers and composers.The architecture of SICIB, which allows real-time performance, is also described. SICIB hasbeen used by three different composers and a cho-reographer with very encouraging results. In par-ticular, the dancer has been involved in music dia-logues with live performance musicians. Ourexperiences with the development of SICIB andour own insights into the relationship that newtechnologies offer to choreographers and dancersare also discussed.