A journey towards the development of a sound-led interdisciplinary performance: Agorá

Many live performance practitioners have explored the development of live gestural controllers in the hope of achieving natural and intimate interaction with their instrument. While the relevant literature offers a great deal of techniques for the development of mapping strategies that link physical gestures to sounds, resources and discussions on how these techniques have been used for the practical development of a live performance are, in comparison, less dense. The advantage of providing a detailed documentation that offers a clear picture as to how and why these strategies have been implemented in the context of a live performance would ultimately provide an additional and necessary tool for the proper analysis of the performance itself. This article presents, analyses and discusses the journey to the development of Agorá, a live sound theatre performance written for a custom-built data glove named 'Pointing-at' . The analysis of both the theoretical and practical elements of performance formed the basis for the development of an approach to the design of nuanced gestural performative actions that are both visually and sonically understandable by audience members. In that regard, the use of metaphors that are coherent to the theme of the performance have been found to be a useful tool that can enhance both the performer and audience experience of the live performance.