A Conceptual Framework for Motion Based Music Applications

Imaginary projections are the core of the framework for motion based music applications presented in this paper. Their design depends on the space covered by the motion tracking device, but also on the musical feature involved in the application. They can be considered a very powerful tool because they allow not only to project in the virtual environment the image of a traditional acoustic instrument, but also to express any spatially defined abstract concept. The system pipeline starts from the musical content and, through a geometrical interpretation, arrives to its projection in the physical space. Three case studies involving different motion tracking devices and different musical concepts will be analyzed. The three examined applications have been programmed and already tested by the authors. They aim respectively at musical expressive interaction (Disembodied Voices), tonal music knowledge (Harmonic Walk) and XX century music composition (Hand Composer)

Preserving today for tomorrow: A case study of an archive of Interactive Music Installations

This work presents the problems addressed and the first results obtained by a project aimed at the preservation of Interactive Music Installations (IMI). Preservation requires that besides all the necessary components for the (re)production of a performance, also the knowledge about these components is kept, so that the original process can be repeated at any given time. This work proposes a multilevel approach for the preservation of IMI. As case studies, the Pinocchio Square (installed in EXPO 2002) and the Il Caos delle Sfere are considered

The \u201cHarmonic Walk\u201d and Enactive Knowledge: an Assessment Report

The Harmonic Walk is an interactive, physical environment based on user\u2019s motion detection and devoted to the study and practice of tonal harmony. When entering the rectangular floor surface within the application\u2019s camera view, a user can actually walk inside the musical structure, causing a sound feedback depending on the occupied zone. We arranged a two masks projection set up to allow users to experience melodic segmentation and tonality harmonic space, and we planned two phase assessment sessions, submitting a 22 high school student group to various test conditions. Our findings demonstrate the high learning effectiveness of the Harmonic Walk application. Its ability to transfer abstract concepts in an enactive way, produces important improvement rates both for subjects who received explicit information and for subjects who didn\u2019t

Is Vivaldi smooth and takete? Non-verbal sensory scales for describing music qualities

Studies on the perception of music qualities (such as induced or perceived emotions, performance styles, or timbre nuances) make a large use of verbal descriptors. Although many authors noted that particular music qualities can hardly be described by means of verbal labels, few studies have tried alternatives. This paper aims at exploring the use of non-verbal sensory scales, in order to represent different perceived qualities in Western classical music. Musically trained and untrained listeners were required to listen to six musical excerpts in major key and to evaluate them from a sensorial and semantic point of view (Experiment 1). The same design (Experiment 2) was conducted using musically trained and untrained listeners who were required to listen to six musical excerpts in minor key. The overall findings indicate that subjects\u2019 ratings on non-verbal sensory scales are consistent throughout and the results support the hypothesis that sensory scales can convey some specific sensations that cannot be described verbally, offering interesting insights to deepen our knowledge on the relationship between music and other sensorial experiences. Such research can foster interesting applications in the field of music information retrieval and timbre spaces explorations together with experiments applied to different musical cultures and contexts

Legioni perdute, leggende ritrovate lungo le strade dell'impero e oltre.

The vanishing of the Roman legions commanded by Marcus Licinius Crassus at Carrae, during a military expedition against the Parthian empire, brought to a large amount of historical conjectures and a huge quantity of fictional works, both in literature and in movies. The myth of Rome keeps all its appeal in the west, but its strength has also an impact also in the eastern regions of the world, as the research about the end of Crassus’ legions in China proves. The aim of this paper is to offer a wide outlook of the relationships between romanity and alterity or better between two empires that from both a temporal and a geographical perspective wouldn’t seem comparable. La scomparsa a Carrae, nella spedizione contro i Parti, della legione agli ordini di Marco Licinio Crasso ha generato speculazioni storiche così come una sterminata letteratura romanzesca nel corso degli anni, a cui si sono aggiunte, più di recente, riletture cinematografiche e televisive. Se è vero che il mito di Roma, anche nella sconfitta, continua ad affascinare la fantasia occidentale, altrettanto vero è l’impatto che esso ha avuto nell’immaginario orientale. La rilettura delle sorti dei legionari di Crasso sopravvissuti e forse giunti fino in Cina ne è un’esemplificazione. Il contributo mira a fornire una panoramica, che spazia da testi divulgativi a discorsi politici fino a studi di genetica, del confronto tra romanità e estrema alterità o meglio tra due imperi che nel tempo e nello spazio sembrerebbero incomparabili.&nbsp

Finis imperii, der Untergang des Abendlandes, un nuovo collasso dell’Occidente?

Il tema della fine degli imperi a partire dall’archetipo della caduta dell’impero romano di Occidente fissato alla data epocale del 476 A. D., ha rappresentato un tema costante della riflessione politica, ideologica e filosofica nel corso dei secoli, dal medioevo fino ad oggi. La connessione logica e ideologica fra declino e caduta dell’impero di Roma e tramonto dell’Occidente si è rapidamente imposta come leitmotiv della riflessione storica e filosofica, nonché come argomento di scienza politica dei secoli successivi, interpretata secondo diverse modalità e con protagonisti diversi ma costantemente riproposta sia come chiave di comprensione storica, sia come quadro di riferimento e di confronto. Tutto ciò sullo sfondo del principio della translatio imperii asseverato e preteso fino alle soglie dell’età contemporanea e, in modi diversi, riproposto nell’interpretazione delle dinamiche politiche del XX e XXI secolo. The theme of the end of the empires, from the archetype of the fall of the Western Roman Empire fixed to the epochal date of 476 AD, has been a consistent theme of political, ideological and philosophical thought over the centuries, from the Middle Ages up to date. The logical connection between ideological and decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the decline of the West has rapidly emerged as the leitmotif of historical and philosophical reflection as well as a topic of political science of the following centuries, interpreted in different ways and with different protagonists but constantly repurposed both as key to historical understanding, both as a framework for reference and comparison. All of this in the background of the principle of translatio imperii asseverated and pretended until the beginning of the contemporary era and in various ways repurposed in the interpretation of the political dynamics of the twentieth and twenty-first century

Dalla “seconda Roma” ai reiterati tramonti dell’Occidente

Dopo la seconda guerra mondiale il confronto fra Stati Uniti e Unione Sovietica passa attraverso una rigida determinazione delle sfere geopolitiche di influenza, la corsa agli armamenti, la gara per la conquista dello spazio. La guerra fredda propone ancora una volta nel corso della storia il confronto fra Oriente e Occidente, e il timore di quest'ultimo di soccombere al pericolo che proviene da est così come già accadde all'impero occidentale di Roma e come rischia di accadere pure oggi a causa della crisi di USA e Unione Europea, della crescita minacciosa delle potenze asiatiche e della sfida tragica del terrorismo islamico. Gli ultimi cento anni sono caratterizzati dunque dal ripetuto richiamo - testimoniato e amplificato dall’analisi politologica e, più o meno strumentalmente, soprattutto dai media - a una crisi dell'Occidente giudicata irreversibile o assai difficilmente superabile After World War II the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union took shape through a rigid determination of geopolitical spheres of influence, through the arms race and through the competition for conquer space. The Cold War has reproposed again, throughout history, the clash between East and West, and the fear of the latter succumbing to the danger that comes from the east as well as happened to the Western Empire of Rome and as threatens to happen as well today because of the crisis of the US and EU and because of the menacing growth of Asian powers and of the tragic challenge of Islamic terrorism. The last hundred years have been characterized by repeated recall –  witnessed and amplified by the analysis of political science and especially in the media more or less instrumentally – to a crisis of the West deemed irreversible or very hard to overcome.

Mozart is still blue: a comparison of sensory and verbal scales to describe qualities in music

An experiment was carried out in order to assess the use of non-verbal sensory scales for evaluating perceived music qualities, by comparing them with the analogous verbal scales. Participants were divided into two groups; one group (SV) completed a set of non-verbal scales responses and then a set of verbal scales responses to short musical extracts. A second group (VS) completed the experiment in the reverse order. Our hypothesis was that the ratings of the SV group can provide information unmediated (or less mediated) by verbal association in a much stronger way than the VS group. Factor analysis performed separately on the SV group, the VS group and for all participants shows a recurring patterning of the majority of sensory scales versus the verbal scales into different factors. Such results suggest that the sensory scale items are indicative of a different semantic structure than the verbal scales in describing music, and so they are indexing different qualities (perhaps ineffable), making them potentially special contributors to understanding musical experience

Preserving today for tomorrow: a case study of an archive of Interactive Music Installations

Περιέχει το πλήρες κείμενοThis work presents the problems addressed and the first results obtained by a project aimed at the preservation of Interactive Music Installations (IMI). Preservation requires that besides all the necessary components for the (re)production of a performance, also the knowledge about these components is kept, so that the original process can be repeated at any given time. This work proposes a multilevel approach for the preservation of IMI. As case studies, the Pinocchio Square (installed in EXPO 2002) and the Il Caos delle Sfere are considered