thrOW was premiered by the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana on Nov. 6, 2014. The video below shows what is projected at the back of the stage.

 

 

Each performer in the LoL has one device with two force-feedback faders on it. As they move the faders, they can throw the virtual masses back and forth between each other. This is the first piece of music ever performed in which multiple performers can touch the same virtual objects with a haptic device.

 

Program notes:

In our day-to-day lives, we send and receive things of all sorts. Where do these things come from and where do they go? They have to go somewhere. In thrOW, each performer uses a FireFader force-feedback device to thrOW things back and forth, as mediated by another entity. When an object falls on a performer’s device, she or her has the option of thrOWing the thing away or of holding it, which causes musical sound to be synthesized. What would happen if gravity were suddenly increased? Or what would happen if gravity were suddenly decreased? What if, collectively, we had to catch everything that we threw away?