The twenty-minute work showcases numerous techniques using the Very NervousSystem (VNS), a computer SCSI device created by artist David Rokeby, designed to analyze movement within a space using one or two video cameras. Anything moving within a camera's view can be analyzed for location and speed. These two parameters, location and speed, are sent to the computer as the equivalent of MIDI note number and continuous controller values. Thus, space is turned into large MIDI controller, with the movement of a performer triggering individual notes, starting or stopping computer processes, or shaping the timbre of a composition. In Dark Around the Edges, the VNS information is sent to a Max program, which handles all of the computer processes and outputs MIDI information to a Kurzweil K2500 synthesizer.

Supported by a Grant from the Rhode Island State Arts Council