Form and function: examples of music interface design

This paper presents observations on the creation of digital music controllers and the music that they generate from the perspectives of the designer and the artist. In the case of musical instruments, what is the role of the form (the hardware) where it concerns the function (the production of musically interesting sounds)? Specific projects are presented, and a set of operational principles is supported from those examples. The associated encounter session will allow delegates to experiment with the interfaces exhibited, further informing these principles

Two Shared Rapid Turn Taking Sound Interfaces for Novices

This paper presents the results of user interaction with two explorative music environments (sound system A and B) that were inspired from the Banda Linda music tradition in two different ways. The sound systems adapted to how a team of two players improvised and made a melody together in an interleaved fashion: Systems A and B used a fuzzy logic algorithm and pattern recognition to respond with modifications of a background rhythms. In an experiment with a pen tablet interface as the music instrument, users aged 10-13 were to tap tones and continue each other's melody. The sound systems rewarded users sonically, if they managed to add tones to their mutual melody in a rapid turn taking manner with rhythmical patterns. Videos of experiment sessions show that user teams contributed to a melody in ways that resemble conversation. Interaction data show that each sound system made player teams play in different ways, but players in general had a hard time adjusting to a non-Western music tradition. The paper concludes with a comparison and evaluation of the two sound systems. Finally it proposes a new approach to the design of collaborative and shared music environments that is based on ''listening applications''

Sonik Spring

(Abstract to follow

Exploring Playfulness in NIME Design: The Case of Live Looping Tools

International audiencePlay and playfulness compose an essential part of our lives as human beings. From childhood to adultness, playfulness is often associated with remarkable positive experiences related to fun, pleasure, intimate social activities, imagination , and creativity. Perhaps not surprisingly, playfulness has been recurrently used in NIME designs as a strategy to engage people, often non-expert, in short term musical activities. Yet, designing for playfulness remains a challenging task, as little knowledge is available for designers to support their decisions. To address this issue, we follow a design rationale approach using the context of Live Looping (LL) as a case study. We start by surveying 101 LL tools, summarizing our analysis into a new design space. We then use this design space to discuss potential guidelines to address playful-ness in a design process. These guidelines are implemented and discussed in a new LL tool–called the " Voice Reaping Machine ". Finally, we contrast our guidelines with previous works in the literature

What does " Evaluation " mean for the NIME community?

International audienceEvaluation has been suggested to be one of the main trends in current NIME research. However, the meaning of the term for the community may not be as clear as it seems. In order to explore this issue, we have analyzed all papers and posters published in the proceedings of the NIME conference from 2012 to 2014. For each publication that explicitly mentioned the term "evaluation", we looked for: a) What targets and stakeholders were considered? b) What goals were set? c) What criteria were used? d) What methods were used? e) How long did the evaluation last? Results show different understandings of evaluation, with little consistency regarding the usage of the word. Surprisingly in some cases, not even basic information such as goal, criteria and methods were provided. In this paper, we attempt to provide an idea of what "evaluation" means for the NIME community, pushing the discussion towards how could we make a better use of evaluation on NIME design and what criteria should be used regarding each goal

Musical Haptics: Introduction

This chapter introduces to the concept of musical haptics, its scope, aims, challenges, as well as its relevance and impact for general haptics and human–computer interaction. A brief summary of subsequent chapters is given

Everyone can be composer today – full stop or question mark?

The incredible tempo of technological development has been incomparable with the rapidity of paradigm shifts in art, particularly over the past 25 years of the "digital age". Approaching technology using its surface control level as an easy tool for art creation (due to lack of time while exploring it, or lack of knowledge, or just due to superficiality) is not often challenging enough to compete with core traditions of art craft across creative disciplines. Due to the rising complexity of user interfaces technologies require either more knowledge, experience and specialization, or provide their users with simplifying solutions. Technologies also do not represent only pool of tools to be used. From media point of view, they gradually incorporate history of knowledge and its continuity. Using piece of technology to make music does not necessarily mean we understand how music is created on its structural level. We become composers thanks to knowledge embodied in the technology itself. Thanks to preset-based-technologies everyone can become composer today reaching quite complex results. In my presentation I am addressing issues of craft and virtuosity in contemporary music composition and performance and I am looking for ways how deep music knowledge can be taught and developed through use of technologies

Design Strategies for Adaptive Social Composition: Collaborative Sound Environments

In order to develop successful collaborative music systems a variety of subtle interactions need to be identified and integrated. Gesture capture, motion tracking, real-time synthesis, environmental parameters and ubiquitous technologies can each be effectively used for developing innovative approaches to instrument design, sound installations, interactive music and generative systems. Current solutions tend to prioritise one or more of these approaches, refining a particular interface technology, software design or compositional approach developed for a specific composition, performer or installation environment. Within this diverse field a group of novel controllers, described as ‘Tangible Interfaces’ have been developed. These are intended for use by novices and in many cases follow a simple model of interaction controlling synthesis parameters through simple user actions. Other approaches offer sophisticated compositional frameworks, but many of these are idiosyncratic and highly personalised. As such they are difficult to engage with and ineffective for groups of novices. The objective of this research is to develop effective design strategies for implementing collaborative sound environments using key terms and vocabulary drawn from the available literature. This is articulated by combining an empathic design process with controlled sound perception and interaction experiments. The identified design strategies have been applied to the development of a new collaborative digital instrument. A range of technical and compositional approaches was considered to define this process, which can be described as Adaptive Social Composition. Dan Livingston

Musical Haptics

Haptic Musical Instruments; Haptic Psychophysics; Interface Design and Evaluation; User Experience; Musical Performanc