Music Perception vo lu m e 28, issue 1, pp. 93-111, issn 0730-7829, electronic issn 1533-8312 © 2010 by t h e regents o f t h e university o f california. all rights reserved. please d i r e c t all requests f o r permission to p h oto c o p y o r r e p ro d u c e a rt i c l e c o n t e n t t h ro u g h t h e university o f california press's rights a n d permissions w e b s i t e , h t t p ://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. doi:10. 1525/mp.2010.28.1.93 Topological Gesture Analysis (TGA) 93 luiz naveda & marc leman Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium spatiotemporal gestures in music and dance have been approached using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Applying quantitative methods has offered new perspectives but imposed several constraints such as artificial metric systems, weak links with qualitative information, and incomplete accounts of variability. In this study, we tackle these problems using concepts from topology to analyze gestural relationships in space. The Topological Gesture Analysis (TGA) relies on the projection of musical cues onto gesture trajectories, which generates point clouds in a three-dimensional space. Point clouds can be interpreted as topologies equipped with musical qualities, which gives us an idea about the relationships between gesture, space, and music. Using this method, we investigate the relationships between musical meter, dance style, and expertise in two popular dances (samba and Charleston). The results show how musical meter is encoded in the dancer's space and how relevant information about styles and expertise can be revealed by means of simple topological relationships.

Music Perception vo lu m e 28, issue 1, pp. 71-91, issn 0730-7829, electronic issn 1533-8312 © 2010 by t h e regents o f t h e university o f california. all rights reserved. please d i r e c t all requests f o r permission to p h oto c o p y o r r e p ro d u c e a rt i c l e c o n t e n t t h ro u g h t h e university o f california press's rights a n d permissions w e b s i t e , h t t p ://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. doi:10.1525/mp.2010.28.1.71 Basic Gestures As Spatiotemporal Reference Frames 71marc leman & luiz naveda Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium the goal of the present study is to gain better insight into how dancers establish, through dancing, a spatiotemporal reference frame in synchrony with musical cues. With the aim of achieving this, repetitive dance patterns of samba and Charleston were recorded using a three-dimensional motion capture system. Geometric patterns then were extracted from each joint of the dancer's body. The method uses a body-centered reference frame and decomposes the movement into nonorthogonal periodicities that match periods of the musical meter. Musical cues (such as meter and loudness) as well as action-based cues (such as velocity) can be projected onto the patterns, thus providing spatiotemporal reference frames, or 'basic gestures,' for action-perception couplings. Conceptually speaking, the spatiotemporal reference frames control minimum effort points in action-perception couplings. They reside as memory patterns in the mental and/or motor domains, ready to be dynamically transformed in dance movements. The present study raises a number of hypotheses related to spatial cognition that may serve as guiding principles for future dance/music studies.

Samba delimits a privileged cultural territory, which is populated by a diverse set of dance and musical expressions. Although several authors have stressed the fact that music and dance are intrinsically coupled in samba culture, there is a lack of proper methods that allow the description of this relationship in terms of musical patterns and body movement. In this study, we develop a method to unravel this relationship, using a computational heuristics that provides an analysis framework to find periodic patterns connected with metre in dance and music. The method is applied to a limited universe of samba dances and music, which is used to illustrate the usefulness of the approach. In particular, we show that an interesting coupling can be observed between dance and music at the metrical level. The results allow us to make the description of shared structures, such as synchronized patterns and spatial gestures, under the common framework of metre. Evidence for the enactment hypothesis is revealed by the contrast between binary tendencies in dance patterns and polymetric ambiguity in music. It is likely that the musical ambiguity of samba forms is a basis for the active engagement of dancers in re-enactment processes, thus providing a framework for embodied meaningformation

In this study, we focus on the interaction between microtiming patterns and several musical properties: intensity, meter and spectral characteristics. The data-set of 106 musical audio excerpts is processed by means of an auditory model and then divided into several spectral regions and metric levels. The resulting segments are described in terms of their musical properties, over which patterns of peak positions and their intensities are sought. A clustering algorithm is used to systematize the process of pattern detection. The results confirm previously reported anticipations of the third and fourth semiquavers in a beat. We also argue that these patterns of microtiming deviations interact with different profiles of intensities that change according to the metrical structure and spectral characteristics. In particular, we suggest two new findings: (i) a small delay of microtiming positions at the lower end of the spectrum on the first semiquaver of each beat and (ii) systematic forms of accelerando and ritardando at a microtiming level covering two-beat and four-beat phrases. The results demonstrate the importance of multidimensional interactions with timing aspects of music. However, more research is needed in order to find proper representations for rhythm and microtiming aspects in such contexts.

KEYWORDSThis article aims to deepen our understanding of the embodied experience of space by embodied experience means of observation and explorative analysis of how an individual interacts with spatial cognition space through movement. We focus on how architecture can be conceived by consid-space ering the embodied experience of space. We look at the level of spatial awareness practice-based and expression of the movements reached in dance. Architectural boundaries are approach explored by means of empirical methods. The subject experiences space, but can this tacit knowledge embodied experience be handled and moulded by the architect, the so-called designer spatial visualizations of spaces? Movements can be considered as expressions derived from the embodied experience in a particular space. Techniques of movement analysis were used in an attempt to capture this embodied experietice through motion. Can the results of this assumption contribute to design-based architectural thinking by understanding 255 Liselotte Vroman | Luiz Naveda. the outcome of tacit knowledge gained fiom spatial visualizations? This is an ongoing research project, and thus this article describes a work in progress. The goal comprises the development of an architectural implementation with regard to the embodied experience of space in design.