DURHAM – I have seen the future of electronic music and it’s in the hands performers creating music wearing gloves that respond to their programmed gestures with synthesizer sound.
London-based Lula Mebrahtu, who performs as Lulaxyz, uses MiMu haptic gloves to control a midi-interactive controller as she sings, her voice a fine instrument itself. She presented a workshop, talk, and performance at Moogfest last weekend.
Lulaxyz at her Armory show in Durham.
Wearing custom-made white gloves with a skeletal appearance, Lula demonstrated how they work during a workshop at American Tobacco Campus. “It took three months to work out the coding for the system,” she said.
The software allows the user to program certain sounds, from pounding drum beats cued with a sharp downward hand slash, to keyboard notes or vocal effects. All of the custom sounds have to be associated with certain gesture.
Lulaxyz and her assistant, Ben Hirst setting up at the Moogfest workshop. She called him “My second brain.”
The MiMu gloves include vibration feedback, movement sensors, a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. Lula showed how bending a finger or two, steepling her hands as if in prayer, making a fist, or shooting an arm straight up triggered specific sounds or effects.
Gestures include larger global movements and more subtle single finger bending.
She said it also took her months to acquire control of each finger individually, demonstrating her versatile hand movements. “Bending the little finger only works if you keep another finger straight,” for instance, she explained. “I tried every combination.”
The screen behind her showed the software choices.
Larger “global” gestures, spreading her arms, bending an elbow, key up other synthesizer sounds. Buttons on the side allow her to mute the gloves.
Nine postures can be saved. The gloves track the users hand movements, gestures and velocity, which can intensify the sound.
Grammy Award-winning musician Imogen Heap demonstrated a pair of the high tech gloves during a 2011 TED talk in Edinburgh. The technology is based on research at the University of the West of England. After four years of engineering development, she started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to bring the gloves to market.
Heap started the Kickstarter campaign after response to a video she posted on YouTube resulted in a torrent of response.
The gloves have been simplified with WiFi connections rather than wires to the midi. During setup at Moogfest, Lula had to setup the Wifi connections to access the software and stored gestures/sounds. The Wifi setup allows the performer to roam freely and unwired on stage.
The show setup for Lula’s performance looks like a Star Trek starship console.
The gloves and software are not inexpensive and cost from $2,000 to $3,000 dollars. Heap has said she wants to see the gloves sell for as little as a keyboard or mouse, although the less expensive versions might lack the same level of precision and function. But that appears a long way off.
Lula performed using the MiMu gloves in a stunning show at the Durham Armory Saturday night.
Here’s a video of Lula performing with the gloves.
