The duo
Two complementary directions, presented on equal footing.
Koo Des (NSDOS)
Artistic & musical direction
Born in Paris in 1984, Kirikoo Des - NSDOS - is a French multidisciplinary artist, musician, performer and dancer. His work explores the intersection of movement, sound and technology.
After training at the Académie Internationale de la Danse and starting out as a hip-hop dancer in the streets of Paris, he set out to generate a “new sonic order” at the meeting point of dance, performance, live coding and electronic music. He captures living data - gestures, environmental signals, biological rhythms - through sensors and custom-built devices, notably with ORCA.
A devoted admirer of Dadaism and Lettrism, working in a DIY ethos inspired by Christian Marclay, Stelarc and Donna Haraway, he composes empirically and physically: music as a living organism. His performances and residencies span Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Mexico City, Montréal, New Orleans, London and Amsterdam.
Musical projects
- Money Exchange - 2016, Standalone Complex
- Intuition Vol. 1 & 2 - 2017-2018, movement data captured in Alaska
- Micro Club - 2021
- Champignonner.Photomontage.Ultrasonique Vol. 1 & 2 - 2024
- Activate Cities - 2025, with NORKHAT
Julien Thomas
Design, technical direction & systems
Designer, electronics designer and developer. His path spans concept cars, exobiology and musical experiments aboard the International Space Station, several years in aeronautical electronics, and robotics design for a video production studio. He now shapes the system architecture, embedded electronics and spatial interactive devices of Pigeons Studio.
How the duo took shape
In 2020, Koo Des and Julien Thomas meet during an artistic residency organized by Matrice and the Institut de France. Their first shared gesture: imagining haptic devices synchronized with a virtual world, on Mozilla Hubs.
They then keep working on these sensors through further residencies and sessions together, shaping them to their artistic world. A gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, processor and screen join the device: enough to compute DFA, in the wake of EightOS, and to carry a visual identity strong enough that activating the object becomes a kind of ceremony.
The haptic feedback later evolves into triphonic bone conduction. In parallel, the duo works together on digital art, synthesizers and robotics, sometimes as far as instrumenting a tattoo machine. Recently, an artistic collaboration in soft robotics has begun with Selma Lepart.
Activities & devices
What the studio offers, and the systems developed in-house.
Activities & services
Data visualisation & data intelligence
Capture and shape every imaginable environmental dataset into artistic digital visualisations.
Creative technology consulting
Guidance for projects at the intersection of art, design and engineering.
Artistic direction
Shaping worlds, experiences, and visual and sonic languages.
Digital Art
Visual and sonic experiences, installations and immersive devices.
Custom physical creations
Design and electronics, in-house prototyping (CNC), working metal, resins, wood, plastics and silicones.
Computer Dance Music
Music written with and for the moving body.
Robotic Sound Hardware
Robotic sound objects, hardware and autonomous devices.
Devices & capabilities
Systems developed in-house, deployable in performance as well as installation.
AS-SIMT wearable sensors
Worn devices that capture motion and return sonic and haptic feedback in real time.
- Embedded screen
- 9-axis motion unit
- Bone-conduction transducers
Unitree Go2 quadruped robots
Mobile sound bodies carrying directional speakers, choreographed through the space.
- Embedded directional speakers
- Choreography and trajectories
- Real-time control
Gesture → sound translation
A real-time pipeline that turns a captured gesture into musical material.
- Capture and mapping
- Timbral transfer
- Sonic corpus
Spatial sound & live interface
Multichannel diffusion and live visualization of the system.
- Spatial diffusion
- Visualization interface
- Macro capture
Two deployment modes
The same device exists as a performed version and as an autonomous one.
- Live activation
- Autonomous installation
- Recording and replay
Projects & references
Path, studio work and collaborations.
Koo’s path
Alaska · 2017-2018
Intuition
Fieldwork around meteorological stations and biofeedback: movements of nature, turned into data, become sounds, textures and rhythms. The album completes an organic vision of music, documented in a series of five films from the field to the studio.
Villa Albertine · 2023
S.E.L.M. - New Orleans
A residency in New Orleans for Send Everyday Life Movement: a dance abstracted from the body, through compiled captured gestures and the “rehumanization” of data. Immersion in a performance city - second lines, Mardi Gras, Black Indians, clubs - to expand the dancer’s expressive range.
NSDOS × NORKHAT · 2025
Activate Cities
Born from a meeting with Noam Assayag and his essay on ambulatory art. Urban journeys (Paris, Berlin, Athens, Moscow) and QR codes in public space link the album to the city: an interactive sound map to reactivate the poetic potential of overlooked places.
Projects
AS-SIMT Motion Sensors
Wearable sensors turning movement into real-time visual, haptic and sonic feedback. Built by Julien and played on stage by Koo. Presented at Gwangju Biennale, IMPACT (Théâtre de Liège) and HOT‑SHOP 14 (ECCO Leather).
Go2 (Unitree) Robotic Performance
Choreographed movements, synchronization with light and audio, custom integrations. Performative projects including stage modules and interactive installations.
Interactive Installations
Real-time controlled stage devices, audio-light synchronization with sensor feedback. Dedicated electronics and firmware for modulations and effects.
References
Collaborations, presentations and press coverage.
Brand collaborations
A collaboration and sponsorship with Nike for more than ten years, across several projects - from design to activation.
Festivals & institutions
Presentations at Mutek (Mexico, Montreal, Tokyo), BIAN Montreal, Gwangju Biennale, Triennale di Milano, Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin, Breathe programme), IMPACT (Théâtre de Liège) and HOT‑SHOP 14 (ECCO Leather).
Residencies & partners
Residencies and research partners, including Matrice and the Institut de France, Villa Albertine, and the ETHICS lab of the Catholic University of Lille.
Press coverage
The French press calls Koo Des the “techno hacker”. His path is documented on the Villa Albertine residency page.
EightOS (∞OS)
A long-term collaboration with Dmitry Paranyushkin.
EightOS (∞OS) is an open source operating system for the bodymind, co-created with Dmitry Paranyushkin under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence since 2015. The project investigates natural dynamics and technologies of the self: an embodied practice, distinct from Pigeons Studio and from the AS-SIMT hardware platform.
Through physical exercises and interactive experiences, EightOS embeds its principles - adaptability, fractal variability, confluence, integrity, friction, resilience, modularity - at the level of reflexes, not just thought. Learning happens through the body: understanding a metaphor by living it.
The collaboration continues through activation programs, embodied research sessions, and SelfSense: an app and trackers that entrain fractal variability in movement, breathing and heart rate, with live feedback on the fractality of gesture.
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