On 14 November 2025, editors Enrique Tomás, Thomas Gorbach, Hilda Tellioglu and Martin Kaltenbrunner presented their book Embodied Gestures in the Science Workshop Lounge at the “Buch Wien” book fair. Beforehand, Hilda Tellioglu, Thomas Gorbach and Enrique Tomás gave a performance that brought the central findings of the artistic research project to life: that hearing is always shaped by embodied cognitive simulations.

The focus was on newly developed gestural interfaces – musical interfaces that directly connect body movements with sound. The audience was able to try out these instruments for themselves: intuitive, playful and ideal for experimental sound design. A question from the audience provoked thought: are ‘noises’ music? The answer was yes – just like atonal or acousmatic music, noises also use gestures as sound material.

The subsequent book presentation offered in-depth insights into the research project “Embodied Gestures”, which reveals new perspectives on musical gestures, instrument development, compositional methods and sound analysis. The authors combine approaches from sound art, embodied music cognition, human-computer interaction, performative studies and artificial intelligence. The project is coordinated by the Tangible Music Lab at the University of Art and Design Linz and the Artifact-based Computing & User Research department at TU Wien and is funded by the FWF-PEEK programme.

Further links:

Embodied Gestures project page, opens an external URL in a new window

TU Wien Academic Press, opens an external URL in a new window