in the palm of your hands is a custom-built, two-handed musical instrument that balances tactile, discrete note articulation with continuous, spatial gestures. Developed for the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) course at NYU ITP, the instrument is designed to feel playable and intuitive, minimizing cognitive load while allowing for deep musical expressivity.

The left-hand controller manages note articulation using five arcade buttons that play scale degrees, coupled with a time-of-flight (VL53L0X) distance sensor. This spatial sensor allows the performer to control context-aware effects like overdrive, strum speed, or vibrato simply by adjusting hand distance—merging harmony with mid-air timbre shaping.

The right-hand controller acts as a modifier, using a 'modifier chord' system to manage the instrument's state. Using combinations of button presses, the performer can shift octaves, transpose keys, switch scales (e.g., Major Pentatonic, Blues, Chromatic), or activate chord modes. The controller provides visual feedback through an RGB LED strip and haptic responses via a vibration motor, allowing the player to stay immersed without looking away.

Built on the Electrosmith Daisy platform, the instrument encourages emergent play patterns, letting performers focus on rhythm and harmony under the fingers while shaping phrasing and emotion through space.