An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

A context-aware application offering map orientation

Arcos Machancoses, A. (2010). A context-aware application offering map orientation. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/8583.Archivo delegad

Ways of feeling: The transformation of emotional experience in music listening in the context of digitisation

This dissertation argues that digitisation and Internet technologies are changing the emotional experience of music listening and explores the ways in which they may do so. I have conducted a cyberethnography of Internet users and perform a language analysis of their experiences. I synthesise this approach with the field of somatechnics, in order to understand the body as always-already positioned in relation to the techno-social schema

Wired for sound : on the digitalisation of music and music culture

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Evolving the drum-kit : frameworks and methods for diachronic live electronic performance practice and bespoke instrument design

This thesis examines performance practice with the Augmented Drum-Kit, a personal evolution of the acoustic drum-kit with the use of digital technology. The practice is investigated from three perspectives: First, through possible spatial and contextual definitions of the instrument under development, taking into consideration the inherently open-ended nature of its building blocks: percussion and the computer. Second, by exploring the composer/performer/builder’s practice paradigm in terms of musical and performative goals with such an emerging performance environment. Finally, as a diachronic practice between performer and all constituent technological parts of the composite instrument, towards the practice’s ongoing development and evolution. Using these discussions as starting points, this practice-led research proposes three intertwined novel frameworks for diachronic live electronic performance practice and bespoke instrument design. Additionally, the developed instrument itself is detailed in the form of the devised design methods, schematics, diagrams and software, addressing questions such as intuitive control, gestural uniformity, consistent electro-acoustic vocabulary, distinct instrumental character, mobility, sound diffusion and transferability. Finally, music portfolio consisting of five solo and group album recordings with the Augmented Drum-Kit is presented, while audiovisual examples from various scenarios and development stages are used to further illustrate the discussion

Digital Sound Studies

The digital turn has created new opportunities for scholars across disciplines to use sound in their scholarship. This volume’s contributors provide a blueprint for making sound central to research, teaching, and dissemination. They show how digital sound studies has the potential to transform silent, text-centric cultures of communication in the humanities into rich, multisensory experiences that are more inclusive of diverse knowledges and abilities. Drawing on multiple disciplines—including rhetoric and composition, performance studies, anthropology, history, and information science—the contributors to Digital Sound Studies bring digital humanities and sound studies into productive conversation while probing the assumptions behind the use of digital tools and technologies in academic life. In so doing, they explore how sonic experience might transform our scholarly networks, writing processes, research methodologies, pedagogies, and knowledges of the archive

2005-2007 Course Catalog

2005-2007 Course Catalo