deformable music interfaces

THE CONCEPT

For this interactive music project, I have built functional prototypes of deformable interfaces that were intended to be used as controllers for musical performances. The five interfaces were built upon ideas generated by nine musicians during three workshops (see the paper for more details).

The five interfaces were made of different deformable and malleable materials, embedded with various sensors (e.g., FSR, Flex Sensor 2.2", Rotary Pot, Conductive Rubber Chord). The idea was to create musical interfaces that can act like “sculpting” interfaces, thus allowing musicians to model and “sculpt” sounds directly with their hands.

THE INTERFACE DESIGN

The interfaces were programmed to work as MIDI controllers. using an Arduino MEGA 2560, the systems read the sensors' data and send it to music software (e.g., Ableton Live). TO filter and model the sensors’ signal for musical interactions, I used the programming software Pure Data (PD) and bridged the input from PD to Ableton Live using a java wrapper (i.e., processing). Then, I have created a calibration system in processing that allowed musicians to easily customize and map sounds in Ableton Live to the deformable interfaces via the midi protocol.

among The musicians involved in the performance study, were the danish band postyr and the electronic music pioneer monolake. They all highlighted how the deformable interfaces enhanced creative thinking and serendipitous discovery during music performances, and how the interfaces enhanced the process of music compositions because of their intuitiveness in use and their capacity to enhance embodied sound experience.

watch the video trailer for the acm conference chi 2015