Artist David Bobier works in an unusual medium: vibrotactile technologies—tools that translate the aural into the tactile and motion into sound.

The founder of VibraFusionLab will present some of his recent work during in/fuse 17, a free public event at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 30, in Lambton Tower’s Studio A.

His London-based lab is a research studio that promotes and encourages the creation of vibrotactile works, providing opportunities for artists of all disciplines and abilities to create compositions and expand artistic practices that are designed to be experienced as a tactile experience.

His presentation Thursday will feature two such systems: the Alternative Sensory Information Display (also called the Emoti-Chair) and the Soundbeam.

The Emoti-chair arose from research to design a theatre chair for the deaf. It separates audio signals into discrete vibrotactile output channels that can be presented on the body to create a high-resolution audiotactile experience through direct connection with musical instruments, live sound and digital sound files.

The Soundbeam is a “touch free” ultraviolet device that uses sensor technology to translate body movement into music and sound.

Bobier will discuss the development of the technologies and demonstrate their function. Audience members will have the opportunity to experiment with the devices.

The in/fuse series of multimedia performance events is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.