Impulse

Impulse (2024) is a 20-minute Digital Dance performance that explores the poetic tension between movement and its abstract visual echo. At its core is a dialogue between dancer Brendan O’Connor and an interactive visual system created by Sam Trolland that reinterprets prior recordings of Brendan's movement textures. These visualisations do not mirror his live gestures but instead form a responsive counterpoint - an evolving entity that emerges as an opposing force.

Driven by a single wrist-worn AirStick, Brendan’s improvised movements are met with a visual language designed to support his immersion in flow. This indirect interactivity fosters a sense of spontaneity and presence, allowing the dancer to remain untethered by overt control mechanisms. The performance is further enriched by the live, improvised electroacoustic soundscape of Reuben Lewis, whose musical responses weave seamlessly into the entanglement of motion and image.

Impulse invites the audience into a layered experience - where movement, sound, and visual abstraction converge - guiding attention fluidly between the physical, the sonic, and the digital.

More information regarding the AirSticks gestural instrument can be found in the below paper publication:
Sam Trolland, Alon Ilsar, Ciaran Frame, Jon McCormack, and Elliott Wilson. 2022. AirSticks 2.0: Instrument Design for Expressive Gestural Interaction. In International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. https://doi.org/10.21428/92fbeb44.c400bdc2