This is really incredible! My Buddy linked me this video, and after watching it I have to say I am thoroughly impressed. Scottish electronic musician Calvin Harris got a bunch of half naked women, painted them with ink and had them perform his new single “Ready For The Weekend.” It may sound a little strange but after watching the video I believe the correct word is awesome! Basically what happened was 15 bikini clad models painted with Bare Conductive, a new skin safe ink which conducts electricity safely across the body and when the performers touch the connection completes a circuit, triggering a sound.
The unique instrument setup consists of 34 pads on the floor which have also been painted with the conductive ink and connected to a computer. The project is the result of a collaboration between Calvin Harris and masters students from the Royal College of Art’s Industrial Design Engineering program. Bare Conductive was developed by RCA students Bibi Nelson, Becky Pilditch, Isabel Lizardi and Matt Johnson. The custom electronics and software for the project were created by Matt Johnson, employing two Arduinos and the graphical audio programming tool Max MSP. The performers, floor pads, Arduinos and Max MSP combine to create a giant MIDI controller which is used to create music which is sequenced and quantized with Ableton Live.