Designing and evaluating virtual musical instruments: facilitating conversational user interaction

This paper is concerned with the design of interactive virtual musical instruments. An interaction design strategy which uses on-screen objects that respond to user actions in physically realistic ways is described. This approach allows musicians to 'play' the virtual instruments using the sound of their familiar acoustic instruments. An investigation of user experience identified three modes of interaction that characterise the musicians' approach to the virtual instruments: instrumental, ornamental and conversational. When using the virtual instruments in instrumental mode, musicians prioritise detailed control; in ornamental mode, they surrender detailed control to the software and allow it to transform their sound; in conversational mode, the musicians allow the virtual instrument to 'talk back', helping to shape the musical direction of performance much as a human playing partner might. Finding a balance between controllability and complexity emerged as a key issue in facilitating 'conversational' interaction. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Panel: Individual and/versus social creativity

The creative act is often thought of as an individual, even lonely, one: the inspiration in the bath, the artist isolated in the garret. The research student has to demonstrate that they found new knowledge and that it was “all their own work”. But how often are these individual acts a realistic model of the creative process? Even if inspiration does come in the bath, how many conversations had taken place before that moment? How much time has the “lonely” artist spent in cafes arguing with other artists about their work? If individual research is so important why do we advise a good student to join a successful research department

Computation' interaction and imagination: Into virtual space and back to reality

The main aim of the research from which this paper arises is to identify requirements of computer support for creative work by investigating the work of artists and exploring the potential of new creative technology in this field. The paper reports upon an experimental artists-in-residence on the campus of Loughborough University during which events were recorded and analysed. The nature of the interchanges between artist and technologist as well as the artists' perspectives upon the use of the technologies and what they gained from it are described. One significant conclusion is that the influence of using computers on the artists' thinking is quite as significant as any direct outcome in terms of product. The enabling of creative transformations is a key aspect. The paper poses three questions and tries to find an answer to each by exploring the modelling of the results of the study in the context of what we know so far about computational approaches to understanding creativity. The results demonstrate that one aspect of VR may be understood in relation to previous studies of emergence

Designing for creative engagement

This paper addresses the problem of understanding creative engagement with interactive systems. A model of engagement is proposed which represents modalities and phases of interactive experiences. The model was derived from empirical studies of audience interaction with art systems. The aim is to provide a means of facilitating communication between participants in the interaction design process. The intention is to help improve collaboration between participants through examining, understanding and agreeing on the set of concepts and modalities on interactive experience. The ongoing research involves refining and developing the model into a more general-purpose instrument. Crown Copyright © 2008

Macaroni synthesis: A creative multimedia collaboration

© 2003 IEEE. The paper describes a collaborative project between an HCI team and an internationally known Japanese artist, based in New York, who was artist-in-residence with the group in the UK. The collaboration resulted in a new performance art work and a new interactive instrument. The research included a full study of the process of collaboration and innovation. The paper describes the work that was created, the interactive instrument developed and illustrates its use in a performance