The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram

This thesis identifies and analyses the key creative protocols in translocal performance practice, and ends with suggestions for new forms of transversal live and mediated performance practice, informed by theory. It argues that ontologies of emergence in dynamic systems nourish contemporary practice in the digital arts. Feedback in self-organised, recursive systems and organisms elicit change, and change transforms. The arguments trace concepts from chaos and complexity theory to virtual multiplicity, relationality, intuition and individuation (in the work of Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Simondon, Massumi, and other process theorists). It then examines the intersection of methodologies in philosophy, science and art and the radical contingencies implicit in the technicity of real-time, collaborative composition. Simultaneous forces or tendencies such as perception/memory, content/ expression and instinct/intellect produce composites (experience, meaning, and intuition- respectively) that affect the sensation of interplay. The translocal event is itself a diagram - an interstice between the forces of the local and the global, between the tendencies of the individual and the collective. The translocal is a point of reference for exploring the distribution of affect, parameters of control and emergent aesthetics. Translocal interplay, enabled by digital technologies and network protocols, is ontogenetic and autopoietic; diagrammatic and synaesthetic; intuitive and transductive. KeyWorx is a software application developed for realtime, distributed, multimodal media processing. As a technological tool created by artists, KeyWorx supports this intuitive type of creative experience: a real-time, translocal “jamming” that transduces the lived experience of a “biogram,” a synaesthetic hinge-dimension. The emerging aesthetics are processual – intuitive, diagrammatic and transversal

Designing Group Music Improvisation Systems:A Decade of Design Research in Education

In this article we discuss Designing Group Music Improvisation Systems (DGMIS), a design education activity that investigates the contemporary challenge design is facing when we go beyond single-user single-artefact interactions. DGMIS examines how to design for systems of interdependent artefacts and human actors, from the perspective of improvised music. We have explored this challenge in design research and education for over a decade in different Industrial Design education contexts, at various geographic locations, in several formats. In this article we describe our experiences and discuss our general observations, corrective measures, and lessons we learned for (teaching) the design of novel, interactive, systemic products

Rethinking Interaction: Identity and Agency in the Performance of “Interactive” Electronic Music

This document investigates interaction between human performers and various interactive technologies in the performance of interactive electronic and computer music. Specifically, it observes how the identity and agency of the interactive technology is experienced and perceived by the human performer. First, a close examination of George Lewis’ creation of and performance with his own historic interactive electronic and computer works reveals his disposition of interaction as improvisation. This disposition is contextualized within then contemporary social and political issues related to African American experimental musicians as well as an emerging culture of electronic and computer musicians concerned with interactivity. Second, an auto-ethnographic study reveals a contemporary performers perspective via the author’s own direct interactive experience with electronic and computer systems. These experiences were documented and analyzed using Actor Network Theory, Critical Technical Practice, theories of Embodiment and Embodied Cognition, Lewis’s conceptions of improvisation, as well as Tracy McMullen’s theory of the Improvisative. Analyses from both studies revealed that when and how performers chose to “other” interactive technologies significantly influenced their actions. The implications of this are discussed in terms of identity formation both within performances of interactive electronic music and interactive technologies generally

Dalcroze meets technology : integrating music, movement and visuals with the Music Paint Machine

peer reviewedNew interactive music educational technologies are often seen as a ‘force of change’, introducing new approaches that address the shortcomings (e.g. score-based, teacher-centred and disembodied) of the so-called traditional teaching approaches. And yet, despite the growing belief in their educational potential, these new technologies have been problematised with regard to their design, reception, implementation and evaluation. A possible way to optimise the realisation of the educational potential of interactive music educational technologies is to connect their use to music educational approaches that stood the test of time and as such may inspire technologies to become a bridge between tradition and innovation. This article describes an educational technology (the Music Paint Machine) that integrates the creative use of movement and visualisation to support instrumental music teaching and learning. Next, it connects this application to such an established music educational method, the Dalcroze approach. Through the lens of a set of interconnected aspects, it is shown how the Music Paint Machine’s conceptual design aligns to the underlying principles of this approach. In this way, it is argued that integrating Dalcroze-inspired practices is a plausible way of realising the didactic potential of the system. An appendix with example exercises is provided

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Live Coding

Open Access peer reviewed papers on live coding published at the 1st International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) in Leeds

Electrifying Opera, Amplifying Agency: Designing a performer-controlled interactive audio system for opera singers

This artistic research project examines the artistic, technical, and pedagogical challenges of developing a performer-controlled interactive technology for real-time vocal processing of the operatic voice. As a classically trained singer-composer, I have explored ways to merge the compositional aspects of transforming electronic sound with the performative aspects of embodied singing. I set out to design, develop, and test a prototype for an interactive vocal processing system using sampling and audio processing methods. The aim was to foreground and accommodate an unamplified operatic voice interacting with the room's acoustics and the extended disembodied voices of the same performer. The iterative prototyping explored the performer's relationship to the acoustic space, the relationship between the embodied acoustic voice and disembodied processed voice(s), and the relationship to memory and time. One of the core challenges was to design a system that would accommodate mobility and allow interaction based on auditory and haptic cues rather than visual. In other words, a system allowing the singer to control their sonic output without standing behind a laptop. I wished to highlight and amplify the performer's agency with a system that would enable nuanced and variable vocal processing, be robust, teachable, and suitable for use in various settings: solo performances, various types and sizes of ensembles, and opera. This entailed mediating different needs, training, and working methods of both electronic music and opera practitioners. One key finding was that even simple audio processing could achieve complex musical results. The audio processes used were primarily combinations of feedback and delay lines. However, performers could get complex musical results quickly through continuous gestural control and the ability to route signals to four channels. This complexity sometimes led to surprising results, eliciting improvisatory responses also from singers without musical improvisation experience. The project has resulted in numerous vocal solo, chamber, and operatic performances in Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States. The research contributes to developing emerging technologies for live electronic vocal processing in opera, developing the improvisational performance skills needed to engage with those technologies, and exploring alternatives for sound diffusion conducive to working with unamplified operatic voices. Links: Exposition and documentation of PhD research in Research Catalogue: Electrifying Opera, Amplifying Agency. Artistic results. Reflection and Public Presentations (PhD) (2023): https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=2222429 Home/Reflections: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2222429/2222460 Mapping & Prototyping: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2222429/2247120 Space & Speakers: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2222429/2222430 Presentations: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2222429/2247155 Artistic Results: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2222429/222248

Worlds of MoCap: writing dance on a three-dimensional canvas

This article examines the contemporary phenomenon of motion capture-based renderings of dance. By taking Nancy Stark Smith's hieroglyphs and Motion Bank's digital score Using the Sky (that explores Deborah Hay's score No Time to Fly) as main examples, a comparison is drawn between analogue and digital traces of dance that both rely on principles of capture instead of following a symbolic notation system. Although one is created by an ink pen and the other by a motion capture (MoCap) apparatus, these different types of drawing display some striking similarities. At the same time there are some fundamental differences in the ontological basis of these images, which affects the way in which we relate to these images and how they invite us to understand dance. Whereas the role of the dancing body as ‘drawing instrument’ remains present, this metaphor manifests itself in a different way in its digital surroundings. By analysing the meaning-making agents that are involved when a dancer is recorded in a motion capture setting and by relating the resulting imagery to relevant theoretical notions, such as ‘phenomenal dance image’ (Stewart), ‘flickering signifiers’ (Hayles), ‘gesturo-haptic media’ (Rotman) and ‘rightness of rendering’ (Goodman), the article traces preliminary answers to two central questions: What do these traces of dance depict? And who is doing the drawing? This article shows how motion capture practices in contemporary dance offer us opportunities to create new worlds through which we may start to know dance differently: artistically, by creating new phenomenal images of dance; analytically, by gaining insight in spatial and rhythmical patterns; and gesturo-haptically, by offering the radical opportunity to re-enact movement through mapping it on to other bodies

Unpacking Non-Dualistic Design: The Soma Design Case

We report on a somaesthetic design workshop and the subsequent analytical work aiming to demystify what is entailed in a non-dualistic design stance on embodied interaction and why a first-person engagement is crucial to its unfoldings. However, as we will uncover through a detailed account of our process, these first-person engagements are deeply entangled with second- and third-person perspectives, sometimes even overlapping. The analysis furthermore reveals some strategies for bridging the body-mind divide by attending to our inner universe and dissolving or traversing dichotomies between inside and outside; individual and social; body and technology. By detailing the creative process, we show how soma design becomes a process of designing with and through kinesthetic experience, in turn letting us confront several dualisms that run like fault lines through HCI's engagement with embodied interaction

Tabletop Tangible Interfaces for Music Performance: Design and Evaluation

This thesis investigates a new generation of collaborative systems: tabletop tangible interfaces (TTIs) for music performance or musical tabletops. Musical tabletops are designed for professional musical performance, as well as for casual interaction in public settings. These systems support co-located collaboration, offered by a shared interface. However, we still know little about their challenges and opportunities for collaborative musical practice: in particular, how to best support beginners or experts or both. This thesis explores the nature of collaboration on TTIs for music performance between beginners, experts, or both. Empirical work was done in two stages: 1) an exploratory stage; and 2) an experimental stage. In the exploratory stage we studied the Reactable, a commercial musical tabletop designed for beginners and experts. In particular, we explored its use in two environments: a multi-session study with expert musicians in a casual lab setting; and a field study with casual visitors in a science centre. In the experimental stage we conducted a controlled experiment for mixed groups using a bespoke musical tabletop interface, SoundXY4. The design of this study was informed by the previous stage about a need to support better real-time awareness of the group activity (workspace awareness) in early interactions. For the three studies, groups musical improvisation was video-captured unobtrusively with the aim of understanding natural uses during group musical practice. Rich video data was carefully analysed focusing on the nature of social interaction and how workspace awareness was manifested. The findings suggest that musical tabletops can support peer learning during multiple sessions; fluid between-group social interaction in public settings; and a democratic and ecological approach to music performance. The findings also point to how workspace awareness can be enhanced in early interactions with TTIs using auditory feedback with ambisonics spatialisation. The thesis concludes with theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for future research in New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), tabletop studies, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)