Improvised interfaces for real-time musical applications

International audienceComputers offer a wealth of promises for real-time musical control. One of them is to enable musicians to change the structure of their instruments in the same time they are playing them, allowing them to adapt their tools to their wills and needs. Few interaction styles provide enough freedom to achieve this. Improvised interfaces are tangible interfaces made out of found objects and tailored by their users. We propose to take advantage of these improvised interfaces to turn the surrounding physical environment into a dynamic musical instrument with tremendous possibilities. Methods dealing with design issues are presented and an implementation of this novel approach is described

Dislocated Sound: A Survey of Improvisation in Networked Audio Platforms

The evolution of networked audio technologies has created unprecedented opportunities for musicians to improvise with instrumentalists from a diverse range of cultures and disciplines. As network speeds increase and latency is consigned to history, tele-musical collaboration, and in particular improvisation will be shaped by new methodologies that respond to this potential. While networked technologies eliminate distance in physical space, for the remote improviser, this creates a liminality of experience through which their performance is mediated. As a first step in understanding the conditions arising from collaboration in networked audio platforms, this paper will examine selected case studies of improvisation in a variety of networked interfaces. The author will examine how platform characteristics and network conditions influence the process of collective improvisation and the methodologies musicians are employing to negotiate their networked experiences

Understanding Music Interaction, and Why It Matters

This is the introductory chapter of a book dedicated to new research in, and emerging new understandings of, music and human-computer interaction—known for short as music interaction. Music interaction research plays a key role in innovative approaches to diverse musical activities, including performance, composition, education, analysis, production and collaborative music making. Music interaction is pivotal in new research directions in a range of activities, including audience participation, interaction between music and dancers, tools for algorithmic music, music video games, audio games, turntablism and live coding. More generally, music provides a powerful source of challenges and new ideas for human-computer interaction (HCI). This introductory chapter reviews the relationship between music and human-computer interaction and outlines research themes and issues that emerge from the collected work of researchers and practitioners in this book

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