peter purgathoferpurg@igw.tuwien.ac.at

@peterpur

interacting with musical instruments

1

Diplomarbeit

Elektronische Musik und Interaktivität:

Prinzipien, Konzepte, Anwendungen

ausgeführt am

Institut für Gestaltungs- und Wirkungsforschung

der Technischen Universität Wien

unter Anleitung von

Univ.Ass. DI Dr. Peter Purgathofer

durch

jörg piringer

Favoritenstraße 17/14, 1040 Wien

Wien, im Oktober 2001

Musikerzeugung mit

MultiTouch-Interfaces

ausgeführt im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltung

183.xxx - Seminar

Matthias Steinböck

0527943

534

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Designing Musical Instruments for FlowSpencer CritchleyDecember 29 2004

If you ask musicians what they value most about making music, most of them will say—in some form or

another—flow. Flow is that wonderful sense of being lost in your work, when "work" becomes joy. Timedisappears, and so do distraction, anxiety, and just about everything else, yielding to a pure unity ofcreator and creation.

So wouldn’t it be strange if many of today’s musical instruments were designed to prevent or destroy

flow? According to a recently convened group of audio experts, that seems to be the case. The groupissued a report stating that most electronic musical instruments are complicated, confusing, and justplain frustrating to use—and when it comes to supporting flow, they compare poorly to instruments that

have been around for centuries.I was the facilitator for that group, which formed at this year’s Project Bar-B-Q, an annual conferencedesigned to influence music hardware and software over the next five years. The conference offers aunique combination of presentations, brainstorming, socializing, and intense pressure, and it has yielded

a surprising number of audio innovations.

Len Layton of the design group sets up a Reason sequence for Project Bar-B-Q’snightly electronic jam as Sigmatel's David Roach looks on. When later attempts atsyncing additional instruments to MIDI Clock proved disruptive, participants notedthat flow would improve greatly if jamming didn't require so many wires.Our workgroup was formed to analyze problems with the interface design of electronic musicalinstruments and come up with a potential solution. (We defined electronic musical instruments broadlyto include equipment that often functions alongside or even like an instrument, such as mixers andeffects.) The workgroup members were not simply armchair pundits; each member either plays

How good can you become?Is there something left to learn after 1 day?

…after 2 days? …after 3 weeks? …after 10 years?

Do I want to keep learning for 10 years?

How good do you want become?Will the instrument still be there in 6 month?

…in 2 years?…in 10 years?

Will it be respected? Will you want to play the instrument in 10 years?

aspects of interaction designfor musical instruments

some

simplicity & depth wide range of input data, but

support »only« one particular activity

rich, satisfying feedbacknot only information, but

immediate, meaningful, physical feedback

»aesthetics« of feedback

use, non-use, misuseuse = playing

non-use includes packing up, transporting, setup etc.

misuse = allow for unanticipated uses

determinism, automation, heuristicswith traditional instruments, it's all about control

with electronic instruments (especially auteur instruments), it's often about giving up control

see »author«

development as part of depthPlay It vs. Use It vs. Build it

many electroacoustic intruments are »auteur«-projects

aestheticsaesthetic pleasure seeing, holding, playing it

also for observer

1

Towards an articulation of

interaction aesthetics

Jonas Löwgren

manuscript, June 16, 2009

to appear in

The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia

ABSTRACT

Even though the emerging field of user experience generally acknowl-

edges the importance of aesthetic qualities in interactive products and

services, there is a lack of approaches recognizing the fundamentally

temporal nature of interaction aesthetics. By means of interaction criti-

cism, I introduce four concepts that begin to characterize the aesthetic

qualities of interaction. Pliability refers to the sense of malleability and

tightly coupled interaction that makes the use of an interactive visualiza-

tion captivating. Rhythm is an important characteristic of certain types

of interaction, from the sub-second pacing of musical interaction to the

hour-scale ebb and flow of peripheral emotional communication. Drama-

turgical structure is not only a feature of online role-playing games, but

plays an important role in several design genres from the most mundane

to the more intellectually sophisticated. Fluency is a way to articulate the

gracefulness with which we are able to handle multiple demands for our

attention and action in augmented spaces.

Keywords: interaction aesthetics, aesthetic interaction qualities, expe-

riential qualities

interaction aestheticspliabilityrhythm

dramaturgical structurefluencycontrol

pliability  …

pliabilityIt refers to the user's sense of

shaping a malleable material in a tight loop of action and response.

pliability enables flow

BOREDO

M

Angst

skill

difficu

lty f l o w

= time

it takes a l

ong long time to get the

re!

so the question isare traditional musical instruments complex

or simple? where does the challenge come from?

Piano Tenori-on

✘ ✘ ✘

LONG TERM GOALS vs

Instant Gratification

Eat me!

I'm yummy!

Omnomnom!!

I'm low fat!

LONG TERM GOALS vs

Instant Gratification

✘ ✘

potential»(selbst-)wirkungserfahrung«

effective experience?experience of agency?

so, make something that is...

very simple to understand yet immensely hard to play aesthetic to look at, hold, play and watch being played

gives rich, satisfying feedback while playing

easy to transport,

set up, handle

allows creative mis-use &

peter purgathoferpurg@igw.tuwien.ac.at

@peterpur