Surfing the Waves of Mood

During Boston Fashion Week (October 5, 2025) at an event hosted by Noise Salon called "Imbalance and Other Provocations", I presented and performed a collaborative piece called "Surfing the Waves of Mood".  My performance was about finding beauty and balance when sometimes fluctuations in our mood can seem beyond our control.  I generated these intrinsic fluctuations of mood through a custom-made math model of mood (being bipolar) and outputted it into sound. To represent how our mood can also be influenced by our own reactions, I wore a movement sensor and ‘danced’ which influenced the math model of mood. Finally, to represent the external world’s influence on our mood, there was communal drumming which influenced how I danced.

One of the lessons I learned from my discussions with Bethany Colleen Ramus is that an important step towards healing and balance is radical self acceptance. Therefore, in the performance, I did not try to conquer or eliminate these fluctuations in mood, instead I explored balance through ‘surfing the waves of mood’. 

My Collaborators: 

Concept/Philosophy Design: Bethany Colleen Ramus

Math Model: Jonathan Touboul and Bob Schwartz

Math to Sound: Sacha Panic  

Tilt Device: Jacob Smith

Drumming: Elizabeth Leary and Audience

My outfit: Rita Pandey and Nellie Theroux

Event: David Stenson and Noise Salon

Photo credit: Gregory Caparell,  Video credit: Jeffrey Means

Part 1: The Presentation

Originally, I gave this presentation at the noise salon event "Imbalance and Other Provocations" during Boston Fashion Week. Because it was not recorded, I recorded it at home. In this video, after I provide an introduction I go over: how I got a bipolar math model (3:44), how I turned that math model into sound (6:33), how I used my own movements to influence the math model (7:32), how communal drumming will influence my movements (9:24), the lessons I learned from Bethany about how to balance one's mood (10:24), the details and symbolism of my performance (13:20), and the meaning of the fashion that I wore (16:25). 

Part 2: The Performance

Before watching this video, please see the first video that goes over the meaning and symbolism.  As a quick overview, I used the output from a custom-made math model of being bipolar and mapped it to sound.  The math model represented the internal influences of Mood.  Then, I put a tilt sensor on my head which directly influenced the math model in real time.  Therefore my dance represented how one's own reactions can affect their Mood.  Then, Elizabeth and the audience played the drums which influenced how I danced and therefore influenced the sound.  The communal drumming represented how the external world affects our mood.  Every 90 seconds the parameters of the math equation were changed which affected how significantly my movements could affect the fluctuations in mood.  

My Mother provided short descriptions which emphasized the main lesson I learned that were represented in the dance, which is, an important step towards healing and balance is radical self acceptance. Therefore, in the performance, I did not try to conquer or eliminate these fluctuations in mood, instead I explored balance through ‘surfing the waves of mood’. 

Below are pictures of some of the audience drummers:

Pictures from the Event