BodyMouth is a bespoke computational sound/movement tool that turns the body into an instrument for speech. Wearing sensors on various body parts, a dancer sounds out full words by performing specific gestures in sequence, as if their body is turned into a mouth. The project explores the alternative modes of speech as an underground approach against totalitarian and oppression. The artists will develop and premiere a full-length evening work titled “Ielele.” In a series of live performances, they will deploy this instrument to sound out ‘lost’ histories and voices, focusing specifically on female East European figures, to conjure an alternate, modern feminist mythmaking that transcends traditional male-centered heroics. “Ielele,” are female forest creatures in Romanian folklore whose eerie voices led men astray—whoever heard their songs became instantly mute. This performance forms a series of linked narratives for 1-5 performers each, and experienced together as a full-length evening.
BodyMouth is a tool built on the open source project Pink Trombone that maps language and bodies in striking ways. Dancers wear sensors on various body parts: when moving in specific ways, the sensors trigger all of the letter sounds the human mouth can produce. The dancer sounds out words by performing gestures in sequence, triggering each word phoneme-by-phoneme. As if their body is turned into a mouth. Mustatea will develop a series of “dance texts” with this tool that challenge feminine myths.
