Excitations and Resonances: Misinterpreted Actions in Neon Meditations

Neon Meditations is a collaborative performance work combining visual art and music, where colours are translated into sound in an electronic instrument controlled by two performers. The sound design follows the principle of excitation and resonance. We use exciters attached to resonating objects that colour and distort the sound. The mapping from gesture to sound, and the fact that this is a multi-agent system, tends to cause confusion about the way the performers shape the sound. Godøy's concept of sound–motion objects is well adapted to acoustic instrumental music, but using Neon Meditations as an example, we will see that it faces many challenges when one tries to extend its application to live electronic music.