Fingerfunk is live, improvised synaesthetic music in which sounds and moving images are triggered simultaneously, and played expressively as instruments. To realize this kind of performance, I designed software, and created a hardware controller/instrument which consists of sensors mounted on the tips of my fingers, inside a glove. I play the music by tapping my fingers on any surface (usually some part of my body); with each tap of a finger, a synaesthetic (sound+image) musical event is created. Intricate percussive tapping (or "fingerdrumming") creates rhythmic multisensory music.

past events

4.02.06 - Fingerfunk @ Cafe Royale, San Francisco

I performed a piece of Fingerfunk live at Cafe Royale in San Francisco, before a screening of new work by filmmaker Regina Gelfo. Regina makes delicious abstract films, and this one had a live score by Scott Hirsch. Cafe Royale is a coffee/tea house and bar which hosts visual art exhibits, live music, and other cool events.

7.23.05 - Family Day at the Hirshhorn - pictures

Chris Patton of 21st Century Consort conducted a series of workshops for children in conjuntion with Visual Music at the Hirshhorn. I provided software and technical consulting for the workshops. Chris played the Videoharp - an instrument with which the player breaks beams of light in order to trigger notes. Andrew Patton put together a composition of still and moving images which, using my software and the Videoharp, he played improvisationally along with a piece of music by Chris. The Videoharp, despite it's name (which is based upon it's use of light), had never before been used to trigger visual images. The uniquely gestural nature of Videoharping proved well-suited to this purpose - when Andrew slid his fingers accross its surface, it produced a glissando of images. Children participating in the workshop got a chance to play the Videoharp, and experience, in a hands-on way, how such a musical instrument could be used to play both musical notes and visual imagery.

The event was featured in the Washington Post's weekend section.