Deformative Signal | Interactive Performance

Deformative Signal is a collaborative, interdisciplinary project that merges physical movement, sensor technology, and real-time audio-visual synthesis. Created by intermedia artist Angeliki and data scientist Vishnoi, the project explores how bodily data can be translated into sensory space.

Using wearable sensors, Angeliki's body becomes a live acoustic signal. Vishnoi translates her anatomy and neuromuscular stress into complex soundscapes driven by algorithmic signal processing.

Upper-body figure wearing sensors for motion and signal capture

His analytical framework contrasts Angeliki’s visceral contortionist practice and extreme physical limits, turning overextended angles, muscular tension, and bodily strain into a generative data process.

The result is a raw soundscape that synthesizes algorithmic complexity and physical boundary-pushing into a poetic, tactile medium.

Body Motion / Sensor Input
        |
        v
Tracked Body Parts
Hands | Spine | Legs | Head | Whole Body
        |
        v
Sound Mapping
Hands      -> melody / arpeggio
Spine      -> chord root / drone pitch
Legs       -> bass / sub pulse
Head       -> filter cutoff / noise color / high-pass
Whole Body -> tempo / density / rhythmic intensity
        |
        v
Motion Engine
Joint tension + drag distance + posture bend
        |
        v
Sound Modes
Direct Body Map
        |
        v
Synthesis Layer
FM drone
Plucked notes
Sub bass
Noise texture
Delay feedback
High-pass / low-pass filters
        |
        v
Live Output
Raw bodily soundscape
responsive to contortion, tension, and movement

--- work in progress ---

Keys 1: Neck 2: Left Leg 3: Right Leg 4: Left Arm 5: Right Arm 6: Spine Shift: Amplify R: Reset Mouse: Drag

Explore the physical structure of the body. Click to activate, then drag joints with your mouse to stretch the body, or press and hold keys 1 to 6 to flex individual limbs smoothly. Tap to activate sound, then drag the glowing joints with your finger. Use Random or Spin when you want the body to move on its own.

Angeliki

Angeliki (Sinaloa, Mexico) is an intermedia performance artist and contortionist based in Chicago, IL. Her practice investigates the intersections of the physical body, the bodily residue, and real-time technology. Translating interior states of vulnerability, solitude, and spatial presence, she finds inspiration in the overlooked: the hidden, the uncanny, and the unhuman.

Vishnoi

Vishnoi (Lucknow, India) is a complexity physicist and data artist based in Chicago, IL. His practice investigates the intersections of physics, emergent social geometries, and generative art. Translating systems of collective human behavior, he finds inspiration in the simplicity underlying complexity, the mathematical coherence of nature, and the beauty of self-evolving mechanisms.