Electronic music composer Jeff Bryant never imagined that learning to knit would be part of his graduate coursework at California Institute of the Arts. But when his interface design instructor challenged him to build a non-boring MIDI controller device last fall, Bryant found an unlikely musical ally: red yarn. By weaving conductive thread into the yarn, Bryant found that he could manipulate the fiber to control a musical instrument — a decidedly non-boring outcome.

So, with help from a costume designer, Bryant knit a few conductive scarves and asked a dancer to wear them. As the dancer performed Bryant's "push_push" project that debuted in May, the scarves activated the piano’s keys through wireless signals. "There's some magic happening there that we can't see," he says.

Knowing that no ordinary knitting kneedles could pull this off, Bryant bought a circular kniting machine called the Addi Express from a wearable tech website and set to work with a supply of conductive silver thread, yarn, and tiny wireless radios. "The conductive thread, used with regular yarn, makes a big, stretchy variable resistor," Bryant explains. "If it's twisted, pulled or compressed, more of the conductive thread is touching itself and that distortion affects the amount of voltage that we can read."

>It’s a considerable thrill to combine a baby grand, two scarves, and one dancer in a room to make music.

In order to transform the voltage produced by the scarves into music, Bryant designed an elaborate rig. He programmed a score-generator to transform the signals into musical notation that was then fed through software that activated an antique Vorsetzer device. The Vorsetzer, in turn, directed the plunking of keys on the Disklavier automatic piano. (How's that for unpronounceable jargon?)

"The great thing about using wireless technology is that you can't see that the performers and the piano are connected," Bryant explains. Having apprenticed for two years with Seattle's pioneering instrument maker/programmer Trimpin, he thrills in finding fresh uses for old forms. "It's like when John Cage prepared the piano for the first time — he liberated the piano from what had gone on for hundreds of years before that."

But Cage was severely limited by the technology of his day. And up until a few years ago, Bryant's "push_push" interactive design would not have been feasible on a student budget.

"This idea of wearable computing has become accessible to artists so they can do cool things" says Bryant's mentor Ajay Kapur, who directs CalArts' Music Technology program. "When I first learned about sensors at Princeton, my professor had to gang up with other schools to afford sensors.... A student can now buy a sensor for $5 that used to cost $3,000."

For Bryant, who's been playing piano since childhood, it’s a considerable thrill to combine a baby grand, two scarves, and one dancer in a room to make music.

"It's like having your first kiss all over again," he says.