Transference: A Hybrid Computational System for Improvised Violin Performance

Transference is a hybrid computational system for improvised violin performance. With hardware sensors and digital signal processing (DSP), the system shapes live acoustic input and computer-generated sound. An electromyographic (EMG) sensor unobtrusively monitors movements of the left hand, while a custom glove controller tracks bowing gestures of the right arm. Through continuous musical gesture the performer is able to actuate and perturb streams of computationally transmuted audio. No additional layers of windowing or semantically-inflected processes of machine learning mediate this process. Remaining at the level of signal processing, the lack of windowed and/or statistical mediation creates a sense of fine-grain tactility and physical transduction for the performer. The strategies employed are sufficiently generalizable to apply to situations beyond those imagined and implemented here within the scope of augmented violin performance.