The symbionts is a range of complex on-body sensors that utilizes various sensors in order to transform bodily motion to electrical signals – later changed into music and visual output.

The Symbionts exist in different versions:

• The Virtual Viola da Gamba:

• The Gripper

A dancer can “grip” small components of vocally performed music and “scratch” the material with a glove.

• Virtual Obbligato

Flex sensors connected to a synthesizer, allowing the performer to play tonal components that are partly pre-programmed and partly improvised.

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• Gestural obligation & Mimicking organs

In ”Gestural obbligato” and in ”Mimicking organ” singers and dancers interact with the Skandia organ via gestures and voice respectively. In the custom-built software, gestures and voice undergo a process where machine learning redistributes input to output. Developed by Federico Visi, Carl Unander-Scharin & Åsa Unander-Scharin for the opera “The Tale of the Great Computing Machine”.

Singer Maria Sanner performing with The Virtual Viola da Gamba. Photo: Martin Hellström

Carl Unander-Scharin performing ”Lasciatemi morire” with The Virtual Viola da Gamba, at Nobel gathering, 2015

Åsa Unander-Scharin performing with Symbionts in ”Patterns, thoughts and Empty Space, 2000

Sensory system for The Virtual Viola da Gamba

Carl Unander-Scharin with a microphone, performing with Symbionts.