Navigating a Guzheng Phrase Corpus Through Ballet-Driven Granular Synthesis

Yueshen Wu; Yuting Xue

Navigating a Guzheng Phrase Corpus Through Ballet-Driven Granular Synthesis
Image credit: Yueshen Wu; Yuting Xue

Abstract:

This paper presents an interactive audio-visual system that reimagines cultural movement as a public interface for accessible musical expression. It allows participants to reshape a Chinese Guzheng soundscape through ballet-inspired body movement. Based on granular synthesis, we recontextualize Chinese Guzheng phrases and performance techniques as a sonic corpus that can be navigated by ballet postural vocabulary, complemented by expressive sound descriptor shaping to enrich the sonic result and legibility. In addition, we develop a hybrid classification-regression mapping strategy in which “in-between” and deviated postures are supported by interpolating between learned examples. The contribution is an intercultural co-adaptation experiment in NIME practice by proposing a shared interaction language between communities.