Rhizomatic Shell, 2025

Body, biosensors

Rhizomatic Shell is an interactive sonic prosthesis designed to explore augmented sonic reality through embodied sound design, creating new forms of experience between sound, the body, and the surrounding environment. The built-in microphone allows for sound capture, which is then transformed into rhythmic-harmonic structures through the movement of hands and arms, and finally emitted as audio signals through embedded wearable speakers.This cyclical process of embodied sound generation acts as an extension of cognitive functions, activating a symbiotic interplay between human body and machine.

Hardware overview
The Shell is made of antibacterial elastic 3D-printed material and integrates custom-built FMG (Force Myography) sensors and 9-axis IMUs. Sensor data is processed by a Raspberry Pi Zero running custom software developed with RNBO (Max/MSP export tool). The sound engine is built around a real-time DSP system composed of a multi-granulator, delay lines, and loopers.

Software overview
Sound modulation arises directly from the biomechanics of the hand, specifically the dynamic interaction between upper and lower knuckles. These movements generate up to 1024 distinct values. The system stores the last combination before the rest pose, which becomes the “root value” for subsequent transformations. Each combination generates a rhythm-harmonic structure:

• - Rhythm dimension: 1024 pulsing patterns based on the root value, with individual delays per knuckle and additional two delays modulated by muscular pressure from the arm and forearm.
• - Harmonic dimension: up to 1024 notes per hand, distributed across a microtonal domain. Of these, 31 values (upper knuckles) are quantised into scales within the 12-TET system, including major, minor (natural, melodic, harmonic), modal, pentatonic, bebop, whole-tone, and octatonic scales. The selected scale depends on the preceding combination, creating a continuous and evolving musical logic.