A forward-thinking fusion of creative coding, wearable technology, reactive sound design and contemporary dance.

StratoFyzika are an interdisciplinary art collective working with interactive technologies to link movement, spatial sound and projected visuals in large-scale, immersive performance pieces.

In THÆTA, the group’s third performance for stage that took place back in 2015, the group explore the liminal state between waking and sleep known as hypnagogia. Choreographer Hen Lovely Bird moves through hypnagogic states along a path representative of a theta brain wave, most commonly associated with drowsiness, meditation and hypnosis.

Creative director Alessandra Leone, who alongside Zoë Mc Pherson founded the “hybrid label” SFX, employs live digital sketching techniques, generative geometric patterns and artificial shadow to represent this theta wave, which reacts to the dancer’s movements thanks to wearable sensors designed and developed by Giovanni-Marco Zaccaria.

Based on the now-retired Arduino Fio microcontroller board and an XBee wireless module, the wearable sensors include tri-axial accelerometers and a gyroscope that are able to pick up variations in movement and gesture. It was also these sensors that the spatial soundscape from Davic Nod reacts to the dancer’s movements.

The majority of the sounds used for this piece were sourced from the archives of the Xperimental Sound Lab, a free sound collection curated and maintained by Thalamus Lab.

Creative coding was handled by Thomas Van Ta, costume design by Jeanette Bruneau Rossow and Juan Cristobal Ribes contributed sound mastering.

For more information about StratoFyzika you can visit their website and follow them on Instagram.

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