Pieter-Jan Pieters first stretched the possibilities of making music by translating gestures such as arm-waving and foot-tapping into sound. Now he’s applied his design technology to the part of the body that matters most in bass-driven club culture: the booty.
The Dutch designer worked with Portuguese music producer Branko and Denmark’s “leading booty-shaker” Twerk Queen Louise to create a track for headphones manufacturer AIAIAI that turns a dancer’s booty shake into music.
“We wanted to provide music lovers with new music, but moreover, we wanted to do this in an unusual way, which brought about music made by the booty – for the booty,” explains Pieters about the project, called “Real Booty Music”.
Twerk Queen Louise was hooked up to a “booty drum device”, developed by Pieters. Also known as an accelerometer, the device uses sensors to record shock, vibration and acceleration. The recordings where then used by Brank to produce a track powered and shaped by Twerk Queen Louise’s booty movements.
The project was also an exploration into changing the perception of twerking: “We wanted to see if it would be possible to place twerking in a technology-driven, creative context,” adds Pieters.
The final track, “Cascavel”, can be downloaded here.
