Sounding bodies: Exploring sonification to promote physical contact

In this paper, we investigate the impact of sonification on the willingness for physical contact. For this purpose, we introduce a novel system designed to explore this impact within a performative art setting. It consists of a MIDI controller which detects physical contact between two dancers and transforms it into sounds. We use it in a preliminary experiment aimed at investigating whether sonification of physical contact in contact dance improvisations influences participants' behavior and their experience. Three sonification strategies are explored with 10 participants performing improvisations with the professional dancer. Questionnaires, interviews and quantification of touches were utilized to compare experimental conditions. The results suggest that sonification of the physical contact influence participants' behavior and experiences, although this effect may depend on type of sonification.