FanRows is a browser-based creative platform for embodied sound interaction. Body movement continuously shapes responsive sound environments — directly in the browser, using a standard webcam.
For creative practice, performance, sound exploration, and embodied-interaction research.
The clip shows a short excerpt from a live FanRows session, where changes in body movement become part of an evolving relationship between movement and sound.
Camera processing, movement tracking and real-time audio processing happen locally on your device. Camera images and movement data derived from them are not uploaded by FanRows.
FanRows analyses movement and interaction patterns, not people. It is not designed to identify participants or infer emotion, intention, personality, health status or other sensitive personal attributes.
Interactive audio systems can use many relationships between movement and sound, from discrete gesture-triggered events to continuous mappings. FanRows focuses on continuous relationships. Changing movement signals are mapped into an evolving sound environment, allowing several aspects of movement and several sound properties to interact at the same time.
A shoulder angle might gradually bring a texture into the mix; body velocity might change its character; torso lean may reshape another layer; stillness can allow slower sonic changes to emerge. The mapping does not have to be one-to-one or symmetrical. The intention is not to turn the body into a collection of virtual sliders, but to create relationships that can be explored, learned, revisited and combined.
Movement changes the sound; the changed sound affects perception; and perception can influence what happens next in the body.
This feedback relationship is central to FanRows. The participant is not simply operating an interface from the outside, but becomes part of an interaction that develops through movement, sound and time.
Recurring movement–sound relationships may become familiar through exploration while others remain open enough to invite new movement. FanRows treats sound not as a fixed composition, but as a space that can be navigated and reshaped through movement.
A session such as Ambient combines several continuously derived movement signals. Shoulder and elbow relationships can reveal or reshape individual sound layers, while torso movement and body velocity influence other aspects of the sonic environment. These relationships are discovered through movement rather than presented as a list of instructions.
The clip shows a short excerpt from Ambient, where subtle body movement continuously reshapes the sound space and its atmosphere.
A posture may expose a texture. Repeated movement may return to a familiar sonic state. Slowing down or becoming still can change how the sound develops. The mappings remain stable enough to explore and revisit without reducing the body to one-to-one controls.
Different sessions use the same underlying system with different material, mappings and interaction qualities. The aim is not to define a universal gesture language, but to create distinct responsive environments with their own character.
For movement artists, dancers and choreographers, this also creates a space for improvisation: movement influences sound, while the changing sound can influence what happens next.
For artists and sound creators — responsive environments for performance, installation, ambient music, sound art and audiovisual work.
For movement artists and choreographers — a space in which improvisation, repeated movement, held positions and changing dynamics can continuously shape sound.
For researchers — a configurable environment for exploring questions around embodied interaction, sensorimotor exploration and perception–action relationships without requiring specialized motion-capture hardware.
Explore the research questions →
Current exploratory testing looks at how people move through unfamiliar movement–sound relationships, whether recurring patterns emerge, and how interaction changes as those relationships become more familiar. These observations are documented as part of the broader development process rather than presented as formal experimental results.
Explore Concept, System, Architecture and Research →
FanRows — Continuous Embodied Audio Interaction
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