Gesture and Field: Ontological Approaches to Interactive Sound in Virtual Reality

Abstract

This article examines two virtual reality musical instruments through a phenomenological lens drawn from German idealism and Heidegger: SIIIGNAL, a gesture-centered, physics-based performance system, and the 3-D Granulator, a field-centered, EEG-adaptive installation. In SIIIGNAL, sound arises through directed action, extending human intention into a manipulable sonic medium. In the 3-D Granulator, sound originates from the reciprocal relations among locomotion, neural variability, and spatial orientation, reframing musical interaction as a process of disclosure that displaces control. The analysis argues that these interaction modes function as complementary approaches that reconfigure the subject-object relation underpinning modern aesthetics, employing technology as a medium through which presence becomes structurally audible. The resulting framework situates VR sound design within a poietic paradigm in which gesture and field, action and attunement, converge to reveal new modes of musical meaning.