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Swinging Suitcase

Swinging Suitcase generates and broadcasts the sound of a flock of small birds in response to movement. Vocalizations are constructed from source clips of house sparrows, which are arranged into responses that range from single chirps to social chatter to scolding. When the piece is swung, the birds begin to make noise, which calibrate to reflect the rate of swinging—accelerating and multiplying in sync with the user’s movements, and then confounding the interaction when the ‘birds’ become ‘bored’. As the user acclimatizes to the piece, the interaction becomes more complex, shifting exploratory gesture into the realm of performance, and drawing on the playfulness of the user as a compositional tool. As you ‘play’ the birds, the birds play you.