BodyX
How WILLPOWER is creating it.
Open Source Documentation
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Sound Reactivity Functionality + Synth Activation
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BodyX
💫 Wearable Instrument 💫
WILLPOWER’s first version of BodyX is almost ready to be used for Immersive Performances.
He stopped performing in 2018 to create it. WILLPOWER new that he would not perform again until it was ready. He started teaching himself hardware & electrical engineering, as well as sewing via youtube videos to accomplish his dream. He then got into eTextiles to make his own wearable instrument. He chose to make it a pair of gloves as the fingers allow a lot of functionalities as well as hand gestures and arm movements.
This journey has been filled with years of work without achievements due to what was necessary to learn and do to even get to this point. It took 7-11 years to make the gloves.
WILLPOWER spent 1 year and a half learning Pure Data (an open source visual programming language for multimedia) as a way to create the music and visuals software but it did not resonate with his flow of creation so he scrapped it and chose to use Processing (a open source JAVA based programming language for creative coding). He is now figuring out how this instrument is played and what it does…
WILLPOWER is documenting the process here in his Tech Lab. There are videos and hundreds of photos of the process showing various functionalities of BodyX.
More will be added in time, as the adventure continues…
He stopped performing in 2018 to create it. WILLPOWER new that he would not perform again until it was ready. He started teaching himself hardware & electrical engineering, as well as sewing via youtube videos to accomplish his dream. He then got into eTextiles to make his own wearable instrument. He chose to make it a pair of gloves as the fingers allow a lot of functionalities as well as hand gestures and arm movements.
This journey has been filled with years of work without achievements due to what was necessary to learn and do to even get to this point. It took 7-11 years to make the gloves.
WILLPOWER spent 1 year and a half learning Pure Data (an open source visual programming language for multimedia) as a way to create the music and visuals software but it did not resonate with his flow of creation so he scrapped it and chose to use Processing (a open source JAVA based programming language for creative coding). He is now figuring out how this instrument is played and what it does…
WILLPOWER is documenting the process here in his Tech Lab. There are videos and hundreds of photos of the process showing various functionalities of BodyX.
More will be added in time, as the adventure continues…
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Controlling LED Structure and Sound + Scratching (HipHop)
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"the goal of bodyX is to make the body itself the instrument. using tech as a way to create an intuitive way to play music, visuals and lights rather than learning how to play an instrument that is external to our body's natural movements. I'm doing it to see how it feels when the human temple is the center instrument of audiovisual creation. although I am using tech, the experience is fun and maybe even more intuitive than an acoustic instrument which takes years to learn... Since BodyX is a wearabale glove, it becomes one with our movements, thus the experience is intuitive, which means innate... this is where the magic happens...
I am showing how technology can bring us closer to ourselves in a fun playful way !! "
~WILLPOWER
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Scratching by rotating my wrist (HipHop)
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BodyX Presentation @ M8TRIARCH during Design Week Lisbon 2025
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Controlling LEDs with Movement
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Gallery
Creation Process: left hand wearable
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BodyX is an ongoing project. It is an etextile body audiovisual instrument being made for WILLPOWER's immersive performances.
The goal is to make it an intuitive way to create both music and visual animated art in real time with the natural movements of the human body.
WILLPOWER is doing realtime chronological documentation of it right here in the Tech Lab.
To stay up to date, join the newsletter on the contact page.
As WILLPOWER develops the tech, he takes you with him on the journey of making.
The images below correspond to different phases of the Research & Development for BodyX.
For this project, he is making eTechStyle sensors, using conductive fabrics and threads, non-conductive fabrics, using electronic components, microcontrollers, Linux OS, the arduino IDE, PlugData (a free and open source Visual Programming Language based on Pure Data) for making the Audio and Visuals that are being generated by the data sent wirelessly from WILLPOWER's body movements.
Click images below to access Sections of the Research & Development phases
