Ambisense
Ambisense is rethinking training: moving away from performance and towards a holistic, emotionally engaging movement experience.
A semester project by Amy Sutcliffe
6th semester, 2025
Supervising lecturers: Prof. Tsunemitsu Tanaka, Romina Marsico, Max Studanski
Improving proprioception at the gym
When training at the gym, it’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of thoughts and distractions. You count repetitions, pay attention to your form – that is, the correct execution of an exercise – and in doing so lose touch with how a movement actually feels.
Generally speaking, the focus remains mainly on performance and personal goals, as proprioception (the body’s awareness of its position in space) is rarely specifically supported or addressed during training. Yet it is the key to true body control, mindfulness and injury prevention.
Real-time feedback and corrections
Mental representations of the body are not fixed, but can be constantly updated through sensory feedback, including auditory feedback,
a technique known as sonification. Ambisense supports proprioception in a subtle and non-invasive way through an atmospheric, auditory feedback system that responds to movement. The space ‘listens’ to the body and responds with a harmonious sound field when the movement is performed correctly. In the event of deviations, this sound field changes, with disharmonies emerging within the existing sound.
This form of acoustic feedback is therefore perceptible, but not overpowering.
Don’t just perform the movements; experience them as part of a story
Drawing on the narrative structure of the hero’s journey, every training session becomes a stage in a transformative journey, like a level in a game, but without a screen. The journey is therefore not ‘my path alone’, but a shared challenge. Connection and cohesion become physically tangible through shared timing, sound and tension. The sound feedback is not assigned in isolation, but is perceived collectively.
Whilst the dramaturgy of the system remains constant, with recurring phases of the hero’s journey, the movement-based vocabulary within the structure is modularly adaptable. The system can thus accommodate various movement formats, such as functional strength training, dance, and therapeutic or meditative practice.
Technology
The technical system consists of a Kinect V2 for motion capture, a high-performance computer on which TouchDesigner analyses the body data, and Ableton Live, which controls the dramatic soundscape via TD-Ableton. The generated sound is output via a multi-channel audio interface to a room-wide loudspeaker system.
All components are connected to one another via USB, OSC or XLR. Power is supplied centrally via the 230V mains supply, with each loudspeaker connected separately.
Interaction takes place implicitly through movement within the space. The system thus recedes into the background and integrates seamlessly into the space.
