Music as Wetware: Composing Bodies with Biofeedback, Sound, and Light
Friday, August 28, 2026
12:30 pm_2:00 pm
Édifice Wilder – Espace danse
85$
Day Pass price, excl. fees & taxesWhat happens when musical hardware and software are used not only to compose sound, but to compose bodies? Informed by an ongoing SSHRC-funded interdisciplinary scoping review of contemporary functional music and sonic wellness, this 90-minute workshop introduces the concept of music as wetware through lecture, demonstration, and collective experimentation. Wetware describes the body-mind’s capacity to learn, adapt, and modulate physiological signals within a biofeedback loop, becoming an active participant rather than a passive data source.
Using BioSynths—open-source instruments between accessible biofeedback tools and scientific-grade biosensing equipment—participants explore a closed circuit: hardware senses breath, heartbeat, and skin conductance; software interprets these signals; sound and light feed them back, shaping attention, sensation, and affect.
A listening session combining BioSynth sonification, responsive light, and resonant acoustic instruments examines how vibration, attention, and imagination shape embodied experience. The workshop is led by Erin Gee (Université de Montréal) and members of the PLACEBO Research Group Luana Belinsky, Nicolas Bourgeois, and Daria Giritch.
No prior knowledge required.
Please note: This activity will be in English only, without live transcription nor translation. During the event, no interpreter for the Deaf will be present.
Presented by
