Rustling, hissing, howling: at what point does noise become sound? No one associates the same ideas, images or memories with a particular sound. All just a matter of individual attitude and perception? And what about the responses in our bodies? For example, how do we move our hands when we hear tapping, knocking or hissing?

The Embodied Gestures anthology, edited by Enrique Tomás, Thomas Gorbach, Hilda Tellioğlu and Martin Kaltenbrunner, shines a spotlight on these and other questions that tackle the relationship between people, sounds and gestures. The contributions represent a special kind of coming together: one that explores the dissolution of the boundaries between physical instruments and digital samples, the interaction between human and artificial creativity - and a new approach to examining the links between body and sound.  

One contribution, for example, looks at the ways in which people perceive sounds and the gestures into which they translate these sounds. Instruments based on certain listening experiences, which had not existed before, were developed and realised. And because all theory is always grey, Jaime Reis and Theodoros Lotis were invited as researchers and musicians to make music with the instruments created in this way and to explore these experiences and possible applications in their contributions.

This volume broadens horizons for a new form of interaction with sound experiences, body perceptions and musical instruments: music becomes embodied - and our bodies become musical.

Embodied Gestures is an artistic research project that is being coordinated by the Tangible Music Lab at the University of Artistic Design Linz and the Artifact-based Computing & User Research Department at TU Wien. The publication of this book was made possible through funding from the "Programm zur Entwicklung und Erschließung der Künste" (FWF PEEK - Programme for the Development and Exploitation of the Arts) in Austria.

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