Agorá (from Greek Ἀγορά, meaning "gathering space" or "public square") is a live music performance investigating the composer-performer’s musical memories. These memories are revealed and reshaped in real time through hand gestures, creating a dialogue between past experiences and present expression. The performance unfolds in a quadrophonic surround setup, immersing the audience in a dynamic spatialized soundscape.
This work is part of Giuseppe Torre’s PhD research (see also links below for further material on the PhD), exploring how gestures mediate the live performance of electronic music. At its core is the Pointing-at glove, a data glove that allows the performer to navigate, shape, and re-create musical memories live. Gestures are mapped to sonic events with an emphasis on legibility, allowing the audience to perceive cause-and-effect relationships between movement and sound. Agorá bridges abstract musical expression and tangible gestures, enhancing audience engagement.
Situated in the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) context, the work emphasizes natural, intimate interaction while foregrounding visual and auditory transparency of gesture-sound relationships. Agorá focuses on both performer control and audience perception, making live electronic music more accessible and engaging.
Gestural Interface: Pointing-at glove — custom-developed data glove capturing hand movements and finger positions in real time.
Sound System: Quadrophonic surround setup providing spatialized audio responsive to gestures.
Mapping Strategy: Each gesture maps to a musical memory or sound transformation, designed with clear metaphors.
Live Electronics: Real-time audio processing interprets glove data, transforming gestures into sound events.
Performance Environment: Minimalist visual interface to foreground gestural communication and audience comprehension.
By integrating gesture, memory, and spatialized sound, Agorá creates an immersive performance where technology serves as an enabler of expressive, comprehensible musical storytelling.
Max custom library
Video Documentary
PhD Thesis
Journal article