Gesture - Music by Claude Cadoz

Gesture - Music, Claude Cadoz

An article which is very important for me in that it provides a greater depth of information into some of the terms used in other articles previously mentioned (which indeed use this article as a basis for their work).

The article starts with an in depth look at definitions and thinking behind the term "Gesture". It does not however present its own definition of gesture but merely compares and contrasts currently existing ones.

In the section titled "Phenomenological analysis", the paper outlines some physiology principles behind "gesture" pointing out

the importance of understanding the basic physiological behavior of the human body when modeling the interaction between man and a machine

In particular this section presents a definition for the terms Isometric Force and Isotonic Force used in Wanderley's "On the Choice of Transducer Technologies..." as such:

• Isometric - in order to produce a force
• Isotonic - in order to produce a displacement

The section titled "Functional Analysis" presents a description of the possible functionalities of a gesture. In particular it outlines and defines three classifications, also used in Wanderley's report:

• The ergotic function - material action, modification and transformation of the environment;
• The epistemic function - perception of the environment;
• The semiotic function - communication of information towards the environment.

The section the goes on to define Instrumental Gestures. Proposing a classification of instrumental gesture based on its function:

• Excitation gesture;
• Modification gesture;
• Selection gesture.

In the next section "Case Studies" the author goes on to give real life examples of this terminology by examining existing acoustic instruments.