Making High-Performance Embedded Instruments with Bela and Pure Data

This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.This hands-on workshop introduces participants to Bela, an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing.Bela is an embedded platform for ultra-low latency audio and sensor processing. We present here the hardware and software features of Bela with particular focus on its integration with Pure Data. Sensor inputs on Bela are sampled at audio rate, which opens to the possibility of doing signal processing using Pure Data’s audio-rate objects

Situated Aesthetics: Interaction and Participation in Biofeedback Performances

This practice-based PhD explores how the implementation of biofeedback in audio-visual performances can challenge the traditional divisions between the roles of the artist, the audience and the artwork. This was achieved by designing a system to accommodate these performances and iterating the system across three performances. At the centre of the system is the use of biometric devices to collect real-time data from audience participants. Their brainwaves and heart rates were interfaced with audio-visual outputs which were made both visible and audible to them, thereby influencing the original data and creating a biofeedback loop. The first of the four experiments took place in a controlled studio environment without an audience and served to establish which technologies were most suited to this end. The technologies were tested for their prospective reliability and accessibility in a live performance environment, with the ultimate aim of enabling the greatest level of interaction between the roles of artist, audience and artwork. The following three experiments took place between 2015-18 and were funded by commissioning bodies to be hosted in galleries and exhibition spaces with an audience present. Each of these latter three performances continued to iterate the system’s design, implementing changes in response to the obstacles and opportunities presented at each stage of the process. The research question took as its starting point the principles of practice as research and the fields of social practice and cybernetics. Broadly defined, social practice is a field of art whose theory and practice foregrounds participation and an awareness of context and process in the production of artworks. Cybernetics is a field of science and philosophy which studies how systems self-regulate within, and adapt to, their environments through mechanisms of feedback and circularity, exploring principles of situatedness, embodiment, interaction and control. By drawing on the respective theories and practices of these fields, this thesis will document how they each informed the experiments in addressing the research question. Little research exists on the points of contact between social practice and cybernetics. Considered together, they mutually inform one another and present a number of illuminating points of departure when considering the embedded hierarchies and relationships between the roles of artist, audience and artwork

Hackable Instruments: Supporting Appropriation and Modification in Digital Musical Interaction

This paper investigates the appropriation of digital musical instruments, wherein the performer develops a personal working relationship with an instrument that may differ from the designer's intent. Two studies are presented which explore different facets of appropriation. First, a highly restrictive instrument was designed to assess the effects of constraint on unexpected creative use. Second, a digital instrument was created which initially shared several constraints and interaction modalities with the first instrument, but which could be rewired by the performer to discover sounds not directly anticipated by the designers. Each instrument was studied with 10 musicians working individually to prepare public performances on the instrument. The results suggest that constrained musical interactions can promote the discovery of unusual and idiosyncratic playing techniques, and that tighter constraints may paradoxically lead to a richer performer experience. The diversity of ways in which the rewirable instrument was modified and used indicates that its design is open to interpretation by the performer, who may discover interaction modalities that were not anticipated by the designers

When technology goes out of control

This paper uses the example of software and electronic devices used in musical improvisation to develop a critique of the dominant view of technology, specified by function and input–output behaviour, and optimized so that it is as domesticated as a faithful dog. The optimization in question attempts to avoid discontinuity and, more generally, unforeseen responses from a system, assuming a human being’s need for an interface is purely functional. Against this, we argue that some devices are, by their nature, complex and chaotic, and also that, because of this complexity, we can form deep attachments to them. These interspecies forms of affection are rooted in the sense of incompleteness of the human, its uncertainty in relation to an other and the reasons why, while a synthetic companion can be desirable because more predictable, in the case of improvisational interaction we desire our machinic counterparts to surprise us

Music making, teaching, and learning in Chiptune communities

Music education has long identified “life-long and life-wide” musicianship within community contexts as a primary goal of formal music instruction in and outside of public schools. In music education research, scholars often seek out (and study) musical communities to inform formal curricula and pedagogy, with the goal of better preparing students to participate in musical communities outside of formal institutions. In this study, I explore music learning practices at play in one corner of contemporary musicianship—chiptune. Chiptune is music that references videogame sounds and videogame music. Some chiptune artists make music for videogames, others release albums and play live shows. Some use digital tools, like VSTs and digital synthesizers to produce their music, while others use videogame consoles running after-market software on game cartridges. The purpose of this study is to better understand music making and learning in chiptune communities by addressing four questions: what does musicianship in chiptune communities look like? What role does community play? What are the music learning practices of chiptune musicians? What, if anything, can be learned about contemporary musicianship by inquiring into chiptune culture? To address these questions, I make use of an auto/ethnographic method, drawing on online ethnography (Hine, 2015) and autoethnographic inquiry (Ellis & Bochner, 2011). Findings take the form of a dialogic, performative text which embodies the fractured nature of online communities. I adopt a rhizomatic (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) heuristic which highlights how chiptune community is flat, center-less, and facilitates mapping as learning. I offer implications for music education research and practice, and suggestions for future research into relationships among communities and nonhuman actants

Computational Thinking in Education: Where does it fit? A systematic literary review

Computational Thinking (CT) has been described as an essential skill which everyone should learn and can therefore include in their skill set. Seymour Papert is credited as concretising Computational Thinking in 1980 but since Wing popularised the term in 2006 and brought it to the international community's attention, more and more research has been conducted on CT in education. The aim of this systematic literary review is to give educators and education researchers an overview of what work has been carried out in the domain, as well as potential gaps and opportunities that still exist. Overall it was found in this review that, although there is a lot of work currently being done around the world in many different educational contexts, the work relating to CT is still in its infancy. Along with the need to create an agreed-upon definition of CT lots of countries are still in the process of, or have not yet started, introducing CT into curriculums in all levels of education. It was also found that Computer Science/Computing, which could be the most obvious place to teach CT, has yet to become a mainstream subject in some countries, although this is improving. Of encouragement to educators is the wealth of tools and resources being developed to help teach CT as well as more and more work relating to curriculum development. For those teachers looking to incorporate CT into their schools or classes then there are bountiful options which include programming, hands-on exercises and more. The need for more detailed lesson plans and curriculum structure however, is something that could be of benefit to teachers

The Holistic Course Delivery: A Novel Pedagogy for Collegiate Introductory Computer Programming

Title from PDF of title page viewed August 20, 2020Dissertation advisor: Rita BargerVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 184-197)Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Education and School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2020For many years there have not been enough computer science graduates to fill open positions. One of the chief barriers to the formation of computer science graduates is that many students are unsuccessful in the introductory programming course. Unsuccessful students often change their major field of study or terminate their collegiate studies. A chief concern is therefore to minimize the DFW rate (grade of D or F, or withdrawal from a course). Student characteristics have been extensively studied to explain, and sometimes justify, the high DFW rate in introductory programming courses. Pairs programming, flipped classrooms, choice of programming language, and a variety of other modifications and novel methods have been devised in efforts to reduce the DFW rate. The collective conclusion has been that there is no silver bullet that has been demonstrated to be universally effective. This quasi-experimental study incorporates four learning theories that inform the design and delivery of an introductory programming course: Neo-Piagetian Theory, Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory, Cognitive Load Theory, and Self-Efficacy Theory. The objective was iv to (1) design a course from the top-down that integrates several pedagogical elements in a holistic way, and (2) deliver it to a group of nascent programming students. The Holistic Course Delivery was implemented in three class sections of an introductory programming course at a midwestern university in which a total of 96 students were enrolled. The Holistic Course Delivery had a significantly lower DFW rate compared to both historic DFW rates at the institution and established international norms and students indicated they felt prepared for subsequent computer science coursework.Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Analysis -- Discussion -- Appendix A. Pre-course survey -- Appendix B. Pre-course test & post-course test -- Appendix C. Post-course survey Appendix D. Homework reflection -- Appendix E. Homework assignments -- Appendix F. Coding sprints -- Appendix G. Final exam programming questions -- Appendix H. Qualitative interview questions -- Appendix I. Curriculum outline -- Appendix J. Syllabu

Developing Educators for The Digital Age: A Framework for Capturing Knowledge in Action

Evaluating skills and knowledge capture lies at the cutting edge of contemporary higher education where there is a drive towards increasing evaluation of classroom performance and use of digital technologies in pedagogy. Developing Educators for the Digital Age is a book that provides a narrative account of teacher development geared towards the further usage of technologies (including iPads, MOOCs and whiteboards) in the classroom presented via the histories and observation of a diverse group of teachers engaged in the multiple dimensions of their profession. Drawing on the insights of a variety of educational theories and approaches (including TPACK) it presents a practical framework for capturing knowledge in action of these English language teachers – in their own voices – indicating how such methods, processes and experiences shed light more widely on related contexts within HE and may be transferable to other situations. This book will be of interest to the growing body of scholars interested in TPACK theory, or communities of practice theory and more widely anyone concerned with how new pedagogical skills and knowledge with technology may be incorporated in better practice and concrete instances of teaching