DI MAINSTONE

Human Harp

source: dimainstone

Artist and researcher, Di Mainstone creates body-centric sculptures, designed to initiate movement and storytelling. Many of these wearable artefacts are inspired by technology. Some of them release sound when handled. Often, they can be modified to create new silhouettes, environments and functionalities. All of them tell a story.

Di’s body-centric devices have been performed at home and abroad, most notably at The V&A, The Barbican, The National Portrait Gallery, Eyebeam NYC and the Swedish National Touring Theatre. Each happening is unique, revealing openings for audience and performer encounters. Di’s work can also be seen in films, which she writes and directs.

Di’s studio is found up a windy stairway, amidst the reclaimed tube trains that roost on top of Shoreditch’s Village Underground. Here her sculptural adornments are brought to life with dancers and musicians. As Artist in Residence at Queen Mary University, Di collaborates with Scientists to incorporate new technology into her body-centric creations.
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source: eyebeamorg

Through a hands-on choreography of fashion, technology and performance, Di Mainstone creates playful adornments that roam the body, hiding and revealing tales that are close to her heart. Di has collaborated with a range of artistic institutions, including the Banff New Media Institute, XS Lab, Montreal and most recently V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam. Her wearable installations have been displayed internationally at conferences, exhibitions and festivals.

For the Eyebeam residency, Di will prototype a set of wearable structures that question both our sense of interconnectivity as well as our understanding personal space within the city environment.
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source: designboom

london-based artist di mainstone observed an uncanny relationship between the architecture of a suspension bridge and the framework of a harp. synthesizing the musical and structural components, she has realized the ‘human harp’, a clip-on prosthetic interfaced with sound mechanics, that magnetically attaches to urban structures, enabling dancers and pedestrians to ‘play the bridge’.

the digital instrument orchestrates cutting-edge technology — retractable strings are integrated into the design, whose specific length and angle relative to the wearer is measured with sensory mechanics. data detects and calculates the vibrations of the suspension cables, generated by the motion of the wearer, and is adapted into a tone, controlling the volume, pitch, and intensity of audio output. the collaborative team of researches, engineers, and artists working on ‘human harp’ will engage audiences in a experience of user-produced audible motion through the kinetic installation.

the result will be a mass participatory art event that is set to tour suspension bridges around the globe. the documentary by the creators project below exposes the artist’s process and procedure in the creation of the device. it also displays an experimental performance of ‘human harp’ on the brooklyn bridge in new york city, which acts as a research into the eventual interface between sound and movement. the dancer is filmed connecting herself to the structure and using the mechanism as an expressive tool.

video courtesy of the creators project ‘as I listened to the hum of the steel suspension cables, the chatter of visitors and the musical ‘clonks’ of their footsteps along the bridge’s wooden walkway, I wondered if these sounds could be recorded, remixed and replayed through a collaborative digital interface? mirroring the steel suspension cables of the bridge, I decided that this clip-on device could be harp-like, with retractable strings that physically attach the user or movician’s body to the bridge, literally turning them into a human harp.’ — di mainstone
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source: vimeo

First imagined by artist Di Mainstone during a walk along New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, Human-Harp is a clip-on sound interface for suspension bridges that enables pedestrians to “play the bridge” like a musical instrument. This high profile, mass participation, immersive art installation will tour internationally across a range of suspension bridges, engaging audiences in a story of sound and motion through cutting-edge technology. Our dream is to close the tour where our vision first began – on the Brooklyn Bridge in celebration of its reopening after extensive renovations.
Human Harp is supported by Queen Mary University of London and funded by EPSRC
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source: ryanpanostumblr