Iterazione di gesti meccanici is a short chamber piece for three laptop performers.

The work explores the intersection of mechanical gesture, digital mediation, and acoustic resonance through a performative setup that turns the laptop itself into both instrument and resonant body.

Each performer plays on the keyboard of their computer while following a video score. The sounds produced are not the actual keystrokes, but recordings of a typewriter, mapped onto the laptop keys. These mechanical articulations are projected through the computer’s built-in speakers as well as through an external loudspeaker placed behind each performer, establishing a layered and spatialized sound field.

In addition, each performer controls an individual feedback system. A lavalier microphone, positioned on the screen of the laptop, captures the acoustic environment of the instrument, generating feedback loops that are shaped by both the performer’s actions and the sonic conditions of the space. These systems are not isolated: the feedback of one performer is influenced by the others, and in turn alters their response.

The piece thus evolves as a network of interdependent processes, where gesture, machine, and environment interact in a fragile but continuously shifting balance.

Iterazione di gesti meccanici transforms the familiar act of typing into a musical performance, reframing the mechanical gesture as a compositional element and highlighting the relational dynamics between performers, instruments, and space.

Thanks to Alessandro Casolino, Federico Ambruosi, and Marco Rotondella for the execution