전모(電毛)놀이 Jeonmonori

Electronic adaptation of the sangmo into hat with a spinning mic that uses audio feedback to create an interactive sound and movement performance

The jeonmonori is an electronic adaptation of the sangmo, a hat with a long, spinning whip made of ribbon attached to its crown, which is worn and played during the sangmonori, a Korean folk tradition where the instrumentalist/performer plays and dances simultaneously with their percussion instrument. I created the jeonmonori by modifying a sangmo hat, replacing the spinning ribbon with a lightweight, mini microphone. While wearing the hat, I move in the middle of four hanging gongs that are amplified with transducers. The act of the mic moving within the amplified gongs creates feedback between the transducers and the mic-ed hat-whip, resonating the gongs, while my position and the speed at which the whip is spinning, among other factors, determines musical variables of feedback such as pitch, rhythm, and dynamics.

The development of this instrument was supported by Center for Performance Research and Roulette Intermedium artist residencies. Special thanks to Levi Lu and Shinya Lin for technical guidance and skill share.