Emilia is 35 years old and is a choreographer and has her own
modern dance company. She has been commissioned to produce a new
dance piece for the opening of the newly refurbished Chisenhale
Dance Space in London. She wants to incorporate new media and
music into the performance, and has decided to use the SOMba system
to make the music for the dancers.
She first contacts a local Brazilian musician, Ayrton, to obtain
music for a few different types of samba rhythms. Ayrton provides
her sheet transciptions of these rhythms for each of 10 different
Brazilian percussion instruments. Aryton has a large collection of
percussion instruments, and records samples of each of them for
Emilia.
Emilia then uses the SOMba system to generate audio files for each
of the parts in the samba rhythms, using the transcribed music and
the recorded samples, both provided by Ayrton. She then uses the
SOMba system to produce a Self-Organized Map of the audiofiles.
She then tries out the different SOMs by using the graphical SOM
browser in the SOMba system. The first few maps she produces do
not fit in with her desired choreography, so she generates SOM maps
until she finds one she is happy with.
Emilia then choreographs and practices with the dancers in her
dance company, trying out different dance techniques, and different
timings for when the dancers show and hide their infrared glowing
orbs. The performance is a rousing success, and Emilia is invited
to Berlin to stage another performance.
