Sam Brenner

Mariah Carey’s Hand

Does Mariah Carey's hand reflect the pitch of her voice?

http://samjbrenner.com/mariah

Classes
Data Representation


In addition to her phenomenal vocal range, pop diva Mariah Carey is known for her unique brand of hand-waving while she sings. I theorized that the position of her hand is a reflection of pitch that she's singing, and this project is my test of that theory. In what became a long and winding journey of data exploration and translation, I used crowdsourced hand-detection, traditional and experimental systems of musical notation, an interminable collection of software, and ultimately a trained alto singer to discover that Mariah Carey's hand kind of, maybe, but not really reflects her singing.