Music and HCI

Music is an evolutionarily deep-rooted, abstract, real-time, complex, non-verbal, social activity. Consequently, interaction design in music can be a valuable source of challenges and new ideas for HCI. This workshop will reflect on the latest research in Music and HCI (Music Interaction for short), with the aim of strengthening the dialogue between the Music Interaction community and the wider HCI community. We will explore recent ideas from Music Interaction that may contribute new perspectives to general HCI practice, and conversely, recent HCI research in non-musical domains with implications for Music Interaction. We will also identify any concerns of Music Interaction that may require unique approaches. Contributors engaged in research in any area of Music Interaction or HCI who would like to contribute to a sustained widening of the dialogue between the distinctive concerns of the Music Interaction community and the wider HCI community will be welcome

Transitioning Between Audience and Performer: Co-Designing Interactive Music Performances with Children

Live interactions have the potential to meaningfully engage audiences during musical performances, and modern technologies promise unique ways to facilitate these interactions. This work presents findings from three co-design sessions with children that investigated how audiences might want to interact with live music performances, including design considerations and opportunities. Findings from these sessions also formed a Spectrum of Audience Interactivity in live musical performances, outlining ways to encourage interactivity in music performances from the child perspective

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

Crossroads: Interactive Music Systems Transforming Performance, Production and Listening

date-added: 2017-12-22 18:26:58 +0000 date-modified: 2017-12-22 18:38:33 +0000 keywords: mood-based interaction, intelligent music production, HCI local-url: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/12502 publisher-url: http://mcl.open.ac.uk/music-chi/uploads/19/HCIMUSIC_2016_paper_15.pdf bdsk-url-1: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/12502/Barthet%20Crossroads%3A%20Interactive%20Music%20Systems%202016%20Accepted.pdfdate-added: 2017-12-22 18:26:58 +0000 date-modified: 2017-12-22 18:38:33 +0000 keywords: mood-based interaction, intelligent music production, HCI local-url: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/12502 publisher-url: http://mcl.open.ac.uk/music-chi/uploads/19/HCIMUSIC_2016_paper_15.pdf bdsk-url-1: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/12502/Barthet%20Crossroads%3A%20Interactive%20Music%20Systems%202016%20Accepted.pdfdate-added: 2017-12-22 18:26:58 +0000 date-modified: 2017-12-22 18:38:33 +0000 keywords: mood-based interaction, intelligent music production, HCI local-url: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/12502 publisher-url: http://mcl.open.ac.uk/music-chi/uploads/19/HCIMUSIC_2016_paper_15.pdf bdsk-url-1: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/12502/Barthet%20Crossroads%3A%20Interactive%20Music%20Systems%202016%20Accepted.pdfWe discuss several state-of-the-art systems that propose new paradigms and user workflows for music composition, production, performance, and listening. We focus on a selection of systems that exploit recent advances in semantic and affective computing, music information retrieval (MIR) and semantic web, as well as insights from fields such as mobile computing and information visualisation. These systems offer the potential to provide transformative experiences for users, which is manifested in creativity, engagement, efficiency, discovery and affect

Embodied Musical Interaction

Music is a natural partner to human-computer interaction, offering tasks and use cases for novel forms of interaction. The richness of the relationship between a performer and their instrument in expressive musical performance can provide valuable insight to human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers interested in applying these forms of deep interaction to other fields. Despite the longstanding connection between music and HCI, it is not an automatic one, and its history arguably points to as many differences as it does overlaps. Music research and HCI research both encompass broad issues, and utilize a wide range of methods. In this chapter I discuss how the concept of embodied interaction can be one way to think about music interaction. I propose how the three “paradigms” of HCI and three design accounts from the interaction design literature can serve as a lens through which to consider types of music HCI. I use this conceptual framework to discuss three different musical projects—Haptic Wave, Form Follows Sound, and BioMuse

Making Up Instruments: Design Fiction for Value Discovery in Communities of Musical Practice

The design of a new technology entails the materialisation of values emerging from the specific community, culture and context in which that technology is created. Within the domain of musical interaction, HCI research often examines new digital tools and technologies which can carry unstated cultural assumptions. This paper takes a step back to present a value discovery exercise exploring the breadth of perspectives different communities might have in relation to the values inscribed in fictional technologies for musical interaction. We conducted a hands-on activity in which musicians active in different contexts were invited to envision not-yet-existent musical instruments. The activity revealed several sources of influence on participants’ artefacts, including cultural background, instrumental training, and prior experience with music technology. Our discussion highlights the importance of cultural awareness and value rationality for the design of interactive systems within and beyond the musical domain

Musical intersections across the digital and physical

Digital musical experiences are commonplace, everyday occurrences for many of us. Digital technologies facilitate where, how and what we access, and they increasingly offer new methods for capturing, sharing, enhancing and supporting such musical experiences. Presented here is a sample of distinct research activities where we have engaged with a cross section of digital tools to augment novel musical experiences in the physical world, harnessing the mobile and the tangible

Musical intersections across the digital and physical

Digital musical experiences are commonplace, everyday occurrences for many of us. Digital technologies facilitate where, how and what we access, and they increasingly offer new methods for capturing, sharing, enhancing and supporting such musical experiences. Presented here is a sample of distinct research activities where we have engaged with a cross section of digital tools to augment novel musical experiences in the physical world, harnessing the mobile and the tangible

TMAP Design Cards for Technology-Mediated Audience Participation in Live Music

Historically, audiences have had various ways to participate in live music performances, including clapping, dancing, swaying, whistling, and singing. More recently, mobile and wireless devices, such as smartphones have opened up powerful new opportunities for audience participation. However, design for technology-mediated audience participation (TMAP) can be challenging: musicians and audiences have different demands, as does the coherence of the music, and group needs can vary widely. Thus, effective TMAP design requires the balancing of knowledge from diverse perspectives and must take into account the needs of diverse roles in creating and supporting performances. This chapter focuses on the process of creating and evaluating a set of design cards to support the interaction design and evaluation of TMAP systems. The cards are based on a previously created descriptive framework for supporting interaction design and evaluation in this challenging area. We discuss the conception and development of the TMAP design cards in some detail, and present an empirical study to evaluate their practical usefulness. Particular attention is paid to the ability of the cards to support finding ideas, changing ideas, and examining ideas from different perspectives

User experience in an interactive music virtual reality system: An exploratory study

The Objects VR interface and study explores interactive music and virtual reality, focusing on user experience, understanding of musical functionality, and interaction issues. Our system offers spatio-temporal music interaction using 3D geometric shapes and their designed relationships. Control is provided by tracking of the hands, and the experience is rendered across a head-mounted display with binaural sound presented over headphones. The evaluation of the system uses a mixed methods approach based on semi-structured interviews, surveys and video-based interaction analysis. On average the system was positively received in terms of interview self-report, metrics for spatial presence and creative support. Interaction analysis and interview thematic analysis also revealed instances of frustration with interaction and levels of confusion with system functionality. Our results allow reflection on design criteria and discussion of implications for facilitating music engagement in virtual reality. Finally our work discusses the effectiveness of measures with respect to future evaluation of novel interactive music systems in virtual reality