Embodied Dialogues

I’m working on a new project called Embodied Dialogues with the fab Jenn Kirby. Below is a project outline:

Embodied Dialogues, is a collaboration-in-progress between Jenn Kirby and Iris Garrelfs, that merges body movement, wearable technology, and extended vocal improvisation. The performance features Kirby’s Sensor Dress, a wearable instrument that generates sound through the performer’s movement, and Garrelfs’ unamplified voice. Sensor Dress is equipped with capacitive touch sensors and motion tracking, enabling real-time interaction between body, dress, and sound. As Garrelfs moves among the audience, her vocalizations activate the dress’s sensors, triggering an array of pre-recorded sounds—ranging from electroacoustic and body-sourced sounds to environmental recordings—while her voice remains unprocessed. The performance creates an intimate and immersive dialogue between performer, audience, body, and space. The integration of wearables, voice, and motion highlights the tactile, organic aspects of sound-making and draws on unpredictability in live improvisation. The work challenges traditional notions of control and controllers in performance, inviting both performer and audience into an ephemeral, postdigital experience. By exploring the intersection of digital musical instruments, human-computer interaction, and embodied expression, Embodied Dialogues offers new insights into how wearables can expand the possibilities of improvised performance, emphasizing the agency of the performer and the fluidity of interaction between body, technology, space and sound.

We’ve got a residency coming up: residency with Jenn Kirby at AMATA, Treliever Road, Falmouth, Penryn TR10 9FE, from 21 July. More activities, incl open studio tbc.

Further info about related activities is below.

Stuff happening:

autumn 2025: premiere tbc

21-27 July 2025: Embodied Dialogues residency with Jenn Kirby at AMATA, Treliever Road, Falmouth, Penryn TR10 9FE. More activities, incl open studio tbc

21-22 June 2025: Dress Making session, Liverpool

10 June 2025: co-presenting Embodied Dialogues: an improvised duet between Sensor Dress and voice with  Jenn Kirby at International Computer Music Conference Boston (ICMC), 2pm UK time or 9am local time panel start. The link to the proceedings will appear here shortlty.