The Sound of Movement Wearables Performing UKIYO

"UKIYO " [Moveable Worlds] is a choreographic installation fusing dance, sound, design and digital projections by DAP LAB, Sadler's Wells, London, 2012.

Ukiyo explores the layers of perceptions in an audiovisual world that constantly shifts and fragments. The movement of the audio phonic characters and their actuation of their specially designed garments create the tactile and auditory dimensions of the world. The audience is invited to move in and around the space which features five hanamichi (runways) and several projection screens for the virtual world graphics and animated photography. Attention is drawn throughout to the sounding wearables, enacted by the performance characters in this multi-layered environment.

How wearability can enhance listeners’ performance of the audible or performativity of sound?

Intimate wearables (garments or accessories) challenge performers and audiences alike when the focus of a work’s aesthetic design is directed at creating particular sound characters that subtly redefine the idea of the “instrument”.

[…]into a collective behavioral environment where we listen and follow the smallest movement, the exhalation, the whisper of rustling fabric, the pleated sigh, the whirring of a tiny speaker worn on a wrist.

Birringer,2013