Physical Computing - Blog
Resistive Touch Screen Controller
Prototype of 8-resistive-touch-screens controller in Explorations in Wires, Circuitry, and Sound: no.1 Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Resistive Touch Screen Controller
Prototype of 8-resistive-touch-screens controller in Explorations in Wires, Circuitry, and Sound: no.1 Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Kelly Feng 冯重瑞
Kelly Feng//冯重瑞 is a composer and interdisciplinary artist whose works are a blend of electronic music, electroacoustic music, traditional concert music, and intermedia installations. She makes her own instruments and much of her works root in decolonial, feminist, and anti-authoritarian perspectives. Her artistic practice prioritizes community, human connection, DIY culture, and non-conformity towards systems of power. Outside of creating and composing, Kelly is also an enthusiastic performer and she enjoys collaborating with fellow musicians and artists on noise and art shows.
Explorations in Wires, Circuitry, and Sound: no.1 Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees (2025)
For an 8-resistive-touch-screens controller and MAX MSP
A digital instrument interface with 8 resistive touch screens that sends x, y data controlling the playback speed, playback speed deviations, pitch shift, and volume to four sound files played back through multi-channel in MAX MSP. The instrument itself is played by moving the magnets on the screens, as the pressure created by the magnets on both sides of the screen will continuously update x, y positions even when the performance is not interacting with that specific screen. The music is inspired by Lawrence Weschler’s biography of contemporary artist Robert Irwin, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees.
How Much of Me explores the question of how closely our identity is tied to what we do. For myself as a composer, how much of myself is made up of all the pieces I write? For Jesse the flutist who performed this piece, how much of herself is defined by her flute and her flute performances? The piece undergoes transformation from normal flute playing to a what is essentially a flute performance without a flute, asking the open-ended question of how much of us remains when we are not doing what we heavily define ourselves by. For the electronics component, I used the MUGIC glove sensors by Mari Kimura to send gyroscopic data to MAX MSP in order to trigger file playbacks.
Audio/Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfjE_snfBDU
Featured in:https://artslab.unm.edu/kelly-feng-and-jesse-tatum-performance-at-artslab/
Woven Hearts‘ core idea is that past mistakes can act as threads that weave together the beautiful textile canvas of today. The first three movements are performances centered around the loom. The fourth movement features myself (the performer) walking around and wrapping the audience section in a single thread, while the electronics play a compilation of "wrong notes" from an old audio recording of a past piano performance of mine, each slowed down so much that they start to sound like bells and organ sounds.
Audio/Video: https://youtu.be/iLO7GxhRhio
Beads explores the extent to which theatrics serve as an essential and necessary part of a performance.
Audio/Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnAGbMUoeOw