Abstract

“Poi,” a Maori performance art featuring whirled tethered weights, combines elements of dance and juggling. It has been embraced by contemporary festival culture, including extension to “glowstringing” or “fire twirling,” in which a glowstick or burning wick is whirled at the end of a tether. We further modernize this activity, opening it up to internet-amplified multimedia. The ubiquity of the contemporary smartphone makes it an attractive platform for even location-based attractions. By sensing its magnetometer, the twirling of a mobile phone can be used to sequence score-following music. Synchronizing such sequencing with sound spatialization, also modulated by the azimuth of the whirled phone, as through an annular (ring-shaped) speaker array, allows interactive, multimodal interaction.