A Digital Twin for Theremin’s Terpsitone from 1970s

Sergey Kasich, and Breanna Lau

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

In this paper, we present a current work on creation of the first interactive digital twin of the Terpsitone - a rare electronic musical instrument designed by Leon Theremin to be played via full-body movements. This full-scale Virtual Reality (VR) replica serves two main purposes: preserving cultural heritage within an interactive volumetric context and making this unique instrument accessible for modern artistic and educational practices. This text discusses the general concept of preservation through Digital Twinning, attempts to provide a historically accurate introduction to the instrument based on primary sources, and details the technical implementation of the twin. We conclude with an outline for future work.

Citation

Sergey Kasich, and Breanna Lau. 2026. A Digital Twin for Theremin’s Terpsitone from 1970s. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784084 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_21,
 abstract = {In this paper, we present a current work on creation of the first interactive digital twin of the Terpsitone - a rare electronic musical instrument designed by Leon Theremin to be played via full-body movements. This full-scale Virtual Reality (VR) replica serves two main purposes: preserving cultural heritage within an interactive volumetric context and making this unique instrument accessible for modern artistic and educational practices. This text discusses the general concept of preservation through Digital Twinning, attempts to provide a historically accurate introduction to the instrument based on primary sources, and details the technical implementation of the twin. We conclude with an outline for future work.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {21},
 author = {Sergey Kasich and Breanna Lau},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784084},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {10},
 pages = {186--195},
 title = {A Digital Twin for Theremin’s Terpsitone from 1970s},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_21.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}