An Innovative Week with ShareMusic TechLab

In earlyMarch 2020, we conducted a ShareMusic TechLab in Skövde, a city situated north of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast. It certainly turned out to a week in the name of innovation, with technology and artistic creativity in deep interaction. The aim of the lab was to explore the music tool MiMu Gloves and a novel nerve sensor.

Musician and technologist Lloyd May, at the time master student at Dartmouth College, USA, wanted to investigate the efficiency of a novel nerve sensor as an artistic tool. He wished to collaborate with an experienced artist who was used to music technology, so we introduced him to Peter Larsson. During the lab week, Peter and Lloyd explored several ways to use the sensor as a tool to create music.The work focused on the kind of movements that were most expressive for creating music, aiming to calibrate the sensor. Peter represented the artistic part of the collaboration and Lloyd adjusted the technology according to Peter’s directions. Together, they investigated the possibilities of the nerve sensor in depth. When they reached the last day of the lab, they used one of Peter’s artistic ideas as a starting point for the work.

Control with the Power of Thought

The nerve sensor that was investigated during the lab is extremely sensitive. It can read signals from the muscle and nerve fibres so distinct that it perceives the intention of a movement. The brain sends impulses to the arm, as an example, and the sensor perceives these impulses. In other words, one can control the sensor by power of thought, just by imagining a movement. The sensor is developed for people with limited movement ability, such as persons with the neuro disease ALS.

MiMu Gloves

This lab was also a part of ShareMusic’s mentoring programme. During the week, Peter also worked with his mentor, musician and producer Gusten Aldenklint (also sound designer in Elefantöra). They explored the MiMu Gloves together with Lloyd. MiMuGloves is an interface for creating music and was developed by a team led by singer-songwriter Imogen Heap. The glove has been used by artists such as Ariana Grande during her world tour in 2015. Peter’s glove is designed especially for his hands, and he found it very rewarding to experiment with this innovative music tool. Gusten and Peter also discussed future plans for Peter and his music making so expect to see and hear more from him in the future!

After the Lab

This article was first published in May 19 2020. In 2021, Lloyd May and Peter Larsson presented their work at the digital NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) International Conference in Shanghai. Lloyd has continued his research as Phd student at CCRMA, Stanford University, a close collaborator of ShareMusic's. Peter has kept on evolving as a multi-faceted artist. In ShareMusic’s mentoring programme, he wrote a script for theatre and made a movie based on the script. Peter also composed the music for the performance and in 2022, he started studying composition at Gotlands tonsättarskola.

Watch Peter’s movie Through Glass here (Vimeo)

Read Lloyd May’s paper Nerve Sensors in Inclusive Musical Performance via this link to NIME 2021.

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