Virtual Reality and music
Music From Inside Virtual Reality:
The Sound of One Hand 
A live improvisation on musical instruments that exist only in virtual reality.
The Sound of One Hand is performed by a single hand in a DataGlove.
The audience sees a dramatic projection of the performer's point-of-view
(the performer is inside- wearing a head-mounted display). The instruments
are somewhat autonomous, and occasionally fight back. The music changes
dramatically from one performance to the next.
The Cybersax, one of the instruments played in The Sound of One Hand,
is perhaps the most sophisticated virtual hand tool yet designed. A musician
can play a melody over a large range, and sometimes even play two melodies
at once, while at the same time controlling the overall mix of the music,
as well as a large number of parameters of timbre, volume, and placement
of the tone. The primary purpose isn't to be able to do many things at once,
of course. The purpose is to play music in an intensely gestural style.
The first four performances of The Sound of One Hand took place on
July 28 through 30 of 1992, during the "Electronic Theater" at
Siggraph, in the Aerie Crown Theater in Chicago. I've played it occasionally
since then- in Linz, Austria, Toronto, New Orleans. Yes, there will be a
record out with this and other VR music at some point.
Check out this article about The Sound
of One Hand.
Here's a Manifesto about my work with VR and
Music.
Go back to Jaron's
home page.