Tensile mixer is an experimental fabric interface that allows a user to"mix" of upto four discrete channels of sound.
A sound sample is assigned to each vertex of the surface, and the computer creates a sound mix based on the pressure at each point. This strategy avoids the need for a large array of sensors, and uses the fabric itself to resolve the forces applied.
In this way, the material properties of the fabric (stretch, memory) are used to "mediate" the human-machine interaction.
This piece was presented as a performance at Timeforms, at the Centre for Research in Computing and the Arts, University of San Diego, in April 2002.