In preparation for the residency at APO33, I started making a physics model to use as the dynamical system in the background. Initially I wanted to use Dimple, a program made by IDMIL, but as that hasn't been maintained for a while, I haven't been able to build it. Instead I came across a physics engine for Processing, the Traer Physics Library, which seems to do what I want.

The model is set up as follows:

• In the middle there is a kind of rod, which exerts a repulsive force.
• There are 100 nodes around this rod, that are connected sideways to each other, so that - with the repulsive force from the center, they have a rest position that makes a cylindrical shape.
• To keep the edges stable, I added additional fixed nodes at each end, that pull the cylinder outwards.
• Each node of the cylinder has another ball with a spring attached. This ball is just attached to that node, and also is under the influence of a repulsive force from the rod in the middle.
• At each node, I can exert a force toward the middle rod that is set via OSC - these will be controlled with the stretch sensors.

As the stretch sensors pull on one of the nodes in the model; the rest of the nodes will be set in motion as they are connected with springs to each other.

During the Berlin residency, Hannah pointed me towards a one-handed keyboard, the Twiddler. This seemed perfect for my plans to livecode while inside the cocoon, so I ordered one. I had to modify it with a little piece of foam to make it fit snugly in my small hands.

So while I otherwise did not have much time to work on the performance over the past month, I spent about 30 hours learning how to type on this keyboard - at home, in public transport and other moments where I had a bit of spare time. By now, I can type all the letters of the alphabet at a speed of average 125 character per minute or 25 words per minute. The next step is capital letters (the shift button), and all the brackets, punctuation and so on needed for coding.

Reflecting on the proces of training the body, it is interesting to notice how the fingers get trained to reach the different keys and hit the right chords; how often doing this at a certain speed makes it easier, than doing it slowly. Most interesting is how it seems to make a difference when I hold my arm in a different orientation - how a different posture of the arm, changes in how the finger positions are experienced.