~ MuTechLab - Music Technology Workshop in Luxembourg

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of facilitating a hands-on workshop in Luxembourg as part of MuTechLab workshop series, organized by Luc Nijs at the University of Luxembourg. Together with Bart Moens from XRHIL and IPEM, we presented a system to control musical parameters with body movement.

MuTechLab is a series of workshops for music teachers who wish to dive into the world of music technology. Funded by the Luxembourgish National Research Fund (FNR, PSP-Classic), the initiative brings together educators eager to explore how technology can enhance music education and creative practice.

What we built and presented

During the workshop, participants got hands-on experience with the EMI-Kit (Embodied Music Interface Kit) – an open-source, low-cost system that allows musicians to control Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) parameters through body movement.

The EMI-Kit consists of: - A wearable sensor device (M5StickC Plus2) that captures body orientation and gestures - A receiver unit (M5Stack STAMP S3A) that converts sensor data to MIDI messages

Unlike expensive commercial alternatives, EMI-Kit is fully open source, customizable, and designed specifically for creative music practice and embodied music interaction practice and research.

The Experience

Teachers experimented with mapping natural body movements – pitch, yaw, roll, and tap gestures – to various musical parameters in their DAWs. The low-latency wireless system made it possible to move and control sound, opening up new possibilities for expressive musical performance and pedagogy.

Learn More

Interested in exploring embodied music interaction yourself? Check out:

• MuTechLab Project Page
• EMI-Kit on GitHub

The EMI-Kit project as-is is a demonstrator to inspire educators to embrace these tools and imagine new ways of teaching and creating music. The EMI-Kit as a platform can - with some additional programming - be a good basis to control musical parameters using various sensors. Have fun with checking out the EMI-Kit.

UGent, Code, and Projecten