The tap-dance rhythmic lines are the protagonists in SoleNoid ß by Peter William Holden. Eight glossy tap-dance shoes, placed symmetrically in a circle, are animated by a computer connected with circuits controlling electromechanical valves (solenoid valves) and compressed air hydraulic pistons. The “living” shoes move in a multiplicity of directions beating the time of a Marko Wild composition on special circular platforms. Inserts on the soles, typical of this type of footwear, amplify the continuous movement of the tip-toe-toe-tip that occurs sometimes in a sync and sometimes in other backbeats. It’s a concert of many different tones, all so short, sharp and to the point that, in some fast passages, the mind links it to the sound of castanets. SoleNoid ß is an installation in which we are the spectator in a theatre of machinic movements, orchestrated by a synthetic brain. In fact these clothing accessories, now rid of their human controllers, mark the disappearance of any border between the tangibility of what is perceived through the senses and the virtuality of the corps de ballet.

Vito Campanelli