Imogen Heap, an English singer-songwriter and composer, is known for her eclectic live-performances. On-stage she switches from instrument to instrument, recording and repeating certain notes and sounds she has created for her songs. Her performances are very physical, ranging from moving to various instruments to using gestures to express and accentuate certain notes and sounds.
Now, she hopes to connect movements with music through Mi.Mu Gloves.
Influencing the Future
In her Kickstarter video for the project, Heap says she “always wished she could control her equipment more naturally.” Her music is extensively layered, requiring much computer time to fine-tune a song. This process often made it difficult for her to recreate the sounds she created in studio for live performances without extensive equipment.
Wanting to make the entire experience less impersonal (for both herself and her audience), she developed Mi.Mu Gloves get closer to the music she wanted to make.
While demoing the gloves at Wired 2012 in London, Heap explained that she wanted the ability to “see and hear the sound.”
It is really an instrument… It’s really like playing music in 3D space.
— Imogen Heap
Certain gestures create single notes, while others pan the same notes and create reverberation. Heap can play the drums in one swift downward motion or play the chimes with the swift drumming of her fingers.
As shown in the video below, the gloves give Heap extensive control over what she can play and create. They not only create music — they can also influence her voice. Simply stepping into a certain area on the stage allows her to harmonize with multiple versions of her own voice. At the end of her demo, Heap performed “Me, the Machine,” with the gloves. The song was also recorded with the gloves for her upcoming album, Sparks.
Other Uses
According to TechCrunch, the gloves have potential to be used in other ways as well. “Other use cases for Mi.Mu include potentially allowing virtual reality hardware makers to insert realistic hand movements into environments. It can also be used to recognize sign language.”
To be clear, the Mi.Mu gloves consist of more than just gloves. The Gloves Project, a website dedicated to the gloves themselves, goes into further detail about the gloves as well as the project as a whole. The Gloves outfit is made up of gloves, armbands, and a harness, according to the site.
Revolution: New Definition of Music?
While the gloves were initially developed with Heap in mind, they have been redesigned to be used by any musician; artists can map the gloves to their own set of gestures.
The Mi.Mu Gloves not only give musicians freedom in composing and performing, but offer non-musicians musical potential as well. Those without any sort of instrumental talent or ability would be able to express themselves musically with the gloves.
The approximately four years of work on the Mi.Mu Gloves have “iron[ed] out all the gloves’ kinks, which bodes well for Kickstarter backers,” according to PC Magazine.
To donate to the project and further their progress, as well as learn more about the project itself, go to Mi.Mu’s Kickstarter page.
