Giromin Residency Report: Creative Exploration by Musicians and Dancers from Frevo and Afro-Brazilian traditions

João Tragtenberg; Filipe Calegario; Eva Rolim Miranda

Giromin Residency Report: Creative Exploration by Musicians and Dancers from Frevo and Afro-Brazilian traditions
Image credit: João Tragtenberg; Filipe Calegario; Eva Rolim Miranda

Abstract:

This paper reports on an artistic residency in a Recife, Brazil, in which musicians and dancers rooted in frevo and Afro-Brazilian traditions explored the Giromin, a wearable Digital Dance and Music Instrument (DDMI). Rather than focusing on technical development, the study documents how artists outside the NIME academic community negotiated the instrument through embodied practice, cultural vocabulary, and collective experimentation. Using Reflexive Thematic Analysis of six in-depth interviews, we identified six themes: (1) the body as interface, (2) tension between programming and creation, (3) tradition as resource rather than barrier, (4) simplicity as a strategy for instrumental mastery, (5) technical limitations as experience shapers, and (6) adoption and future imaginaries. The findings contribute to discussions on NIME adoption, embodied interaction, and community-centered design, particularly in Global South contexts. The residency reveals that digital instruments do not enter traditions as neutral tools; they are negotiated through existing bodily grammars, social practices, and expectations of liveness.