S.K.A.T.E. and G.L.I.D.E.: Expressive Interfaces for Movement on Ice
Project Collaborators
Software + Hardware:
Text/Dramaturgy:
Figure Skaters:
About
Before becoming a composer, I was a figure skater for several years as a child and teen. When I returned to figure skating as an adult, I recognised the potential for joining these two worlds. This started with a proposal for a motion tracking project, in which the movements of a figure skater would be tracked and translated into data that could manipulate, generate, or modify sound in some way. Beginning in late 2024, myself and others on the team began to explore the possibilities of this system and develop the project into something on a longer term. Here I will post some of our experiments, explorations, and artistic results.
If you have an interest in this project or want to collaborate in some way, please write me at [email protected]
[ice]orchesis (2025)
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
Movement: Moe Okuda
[ice]orchesis transforms the gestures of figure skater Moe Okuda into a continuum of sound.
Using motion tracking on each hand, her movements act as quasi-registrants, controlling the opening and closing of organ pipes along a continuous range. Each hand shapes the airflow, influencing pitch and volume in real time.
The video layers her motion four times at four different speeds, revealing a dialogue between gesture and resonance — a choreography of air, movement, and sound.
…compression… (2025)
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
Poetry and voice: Elee Kralji Gardiner
Movement: Matej Silecky
…compression… is an audiovisual poem that transforms the rotation of figure skater Matej Silecky’s jump into an evolving sonic texture.
A recorded poem by Elee Kraljii Gardiner becomes the source material: as the skater’s rotational speed increases, the audio slows, stretching the voice and bending its pitch in real time.
The jump itself is also slowed to 0.00825× speed, inspired by Gardiner’s line:
“At the top of the jump, we see detail, sketched to pin.”
This extreme deceleration sends data to Max, subtly shaping a long, suspended vocal layer over time — a meditation on motion, voice, and the dilation of a single instant.
Poem source:
A Compression of Hours Both Glacial and Blue (by Elee Kraljii Gardiner)
So soften: soften the line inside. So
silently we touch the space between surfaces
when we suspend even as particles, ventricles
pause in the pump and there—
at the top of the jump we see detail
sketched to pin: a galaxy aware in between the huff
of inside, outside. How we contain multiple
rotations between home to ice: ice to home.
This is how we teach our cells to confuse the two,
translate comfort as effort, refuse single
interpretations. Doubling, we become ourselves
in this dome of movement. We will be muscled
among memory of the lightest future
while we slide within tracings layered
hour into hour by the every other.
(toe)looping the game – 2025
Concept and game design: Alyssa Aska and Martin Ritter
Developed with Unity2D
(toe) looping the game is a musical non-game built in Unity 2D that lets you interact with a playful 2D environment to create unique audio experiences.
Every sound and visual element comes from a single 3-second clip of Mikhail Shaidorov’s quad toe–triple toe (4T–3T) jump at the 2023 Cup of China. By exploring and engaging with simple objects, you can generate endless soundscapes from this one moment in skating.
The downloadable desktop version also allows you to save audio tracks you create during play. You’re welcome to use these recordings in your own projects — all we ask is that you credit us and the game.
Web Version (desktop only)
Download game and create your own (toe)loops!
push.pull/edge – 2025
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
Using skating sounds and movement of Maja Luther
push.pull/edge is an audiovisual composition that transforms the sound of figure skating blades into both musical expression and sonic material. Using recordings of skater, choreographer, and coach Maja Luther in Winterthur, Switzerland, the piece layers video clips at varying speeds while amplitude-tracking the blade sounds to shape the intonation and volume of pre-recorded organ textures. The result is an immersive interplay of movement, sound, and visual rhythm.
(micro)Tonal Points – 2025
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
Inspired by poetry by Elee Kralji Gardiner
A Compression of Hours Both Glacial and Blue (by Elee Kraljii Gardiner)
So soften: soften the line inside. So
silently we touch the space between surfaces
when we suspend even as particles, ventricles
pause in the pump and there—
at the top of the jump we see detail
sketched to pin: a galaxy aware in between the huff
of inside, outside. How we contain multiple
rotations between home to ice: ice to home.
This is how we teach our cells to confuse the two,
translate comfort as effort, refuse single
interpretations. Doubling, we become ourselves
in this dome of movement. We will be muscled
among memory of the lightest future
while we slide within tracings layered
hour into hour by the every other.
(en)Harmonic curves – 2025
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
Inspired by poetry by Elee Kralji Gardiner
School Figures (by Elee Kraljii Gardiner) – from serpentine loop, Anvil Press, 2016.
Cast in blue, grey and violet inside the hangar-sized rink,
we move to assigned patches, drape sweaters
on the boards. Place skateguards upside down.
Tiny hulls. Each of us is alone
with something to do: trace infinity.
Perfect the line we know dissolves under water and steam.
In the chill, we do not move quickly enough to sweat.
We round the figure like an unwinding clock,
push off and peter out; repeat three times. A coach
in a shin-length parka traces a girl, corrects her free leg.
Twenty skaters concentrate on line, repeat figures
until motion and time translate for body. A scribe
telescopes to the tape marking the skater’s height.
The scribe’s pivot and scrape is so familiar
it evaporates unheard, a breath.
(toe)looping – 2025
Music and Concept: Alyssa Aska
Video editing: Martin Ritter
This piece is created entirely from a single 3-second audio clip—the sound of figure skater Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) landing a quad toe loop-triple toe loop (4T-3T) combination at the Cup of China 2023. No additional recordings, synthesized sounds, or external elements were used—only transformations of that singular ice sound.
Video Editing: Special thanks to Martin Ritter
Original Figure Skating Footage: Courtesy of Skating ISU, used under Fair Use Protocol