Opportunities for Practice-Based Research in Musical Instrument Design

Leonardo ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Instrument Design ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
Musical Interactions ◽  
Practice Based Research ◽  
The Relationship

This paper considers the relationship between design, practice and research in the area of New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). The author argues that NIME practitioner-researchers should embrace the instability and dynamism inherent in digital musical interactions in order to explore and document the evolving processes of musical expression.

Digital Musical Interactions: Performer–system relationships and their perception by spectators

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Gurevich ◽  
A. Cavan Fyans
Keyword(s):  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Digital Systems ◽  
Digital Music ◽  
Musical Interactions ◽  
Ecological View ◽  
The Relationship

This article adopts an ecological view of digital musical interactions, considering first the relationship between performers and digital systems, and then spectators’ perception of these interactions. We provide evidence that the relationships between performers and digital music systems are not necessarily instrumental in the same was as they are with acoustic systems, and nor should they always strive to be. Furthermore, we report results of a study indicating that spectators may not perceive such interactions in the same way as performances with acoustic musical instruments. We present implications for the design of digital musical interactions, suggesting that designers should embrace the reality that digital systems are malleable and dynamic, and may engage performers and spectators in different modalities, sometimes simultaneously.

scholarly journals Correction to: from AI, creativity and music to IoT, HCI, musical instrument design and audio interaction: a journey in sound

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Chamberlain ◽  
Adrian Hazzard ◽  
Elizabeth Kelly ◽  
Mads Bødker ◽  
Maria Kallionpää
Keyword(s):  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Instrument Design

Predicting emotions in music using the onset curve

2021 ◽  
pp. 030573562110316
Author(s):  
Elena Saiz-Clar ◽  
Miguel Ángel Serrano ◽  
José Manuel Reales
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Musical Score ◽  
Musical Note ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
Frequency Domains ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between parameters extracted from the musical stimuli and emotional response has been traditionally approached using several physical measures extracted from time or frequency domains. From time-domain measures, the musical onset is defined as the moment in that any musical instrument or human voice issues a musical note. The onsets’ sequence in the performance of a specific musical score creates what is known as the onset curve (OC). The influence of the structure of OC on the emotional judgment of people is not known. To this end, we have applied principal component analysis on a complete set of variables extracted from the OC to capture their statistical structure. We have found a trifactorial structure related to activation and valence dimensions of emotional judgment. The structure has been cross-validated using different participants and stimuli. In this way, we propose the factorial scores of the OC as a reliable and relevant piece of information to predict the emotional judgment of music.

scholarly journals Understanding Human Scale and the Importance of its Relationship with Enclosure

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Austin H. Mackesy-Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
Design Case Study ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
Scale Design ◽  
The Relationship

<p>The main objective of the research is to better understand the concept of human scale and the role that it has to play in the design of our urban environments. The need for a clearer, less ambiguous understanding of human scale is identified as a result of its poor definition and numerous manifestations across a multitude of literature. Human scale is an important part of design that flourished particularly in the middle ages, but has largely been neglected in the industrial and technological ages. Its remergence comes with the return of consideration for the comfort of people. Yet we cannot successfully apply a concept we do not wholly understand. Human scale is therefore redefined as a collective concept that embodies the multitude of existing definitions and treats them as aspects of a larger theory. As a broader but more comprehensive definition it better facilitates the identification and exploration of relationships with what are currently treated as separate urban design objectives, such as enclosure, in an endeavour to better understand the influence of human scale. The design case study proposes a design that tests the relationship between enclosure and human scale. A large site is chosen to display how human scale operates at urban, as well as architectural and detailed levels. Through aspiring to achieve a thorough human scale design, without any exclusive emphasis on enclosure, the process and the outcome still reveal that the theoretical relationship identified in the research (that aspects of human scale foster the formation of enclosure) is unavoidable in design practice. Enclosure simply results as a consequence of thorough human scale design. The research suggests that many urban design objectives may fall under human scale's sphere of influence meaning it is not a singular concept, but an ethic of design that has many desireable consequences. While the idealistic nature of the design may be unrealistic to achieve at present, it highlights the incompatibilities with contemporary approaches and succeeds in generating discussion.</p>

The Anthropomorphic Analogy: Humanising musical machines in the early modern and contemporary eras

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
Rebecca Cypess ◽  
Steven Kemper
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Physical Computing ◽  
Western Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
Musical Systems ◽  
Historical Contextualisation ◽  
Sensor Interfaces ◽  
The Relationship

Since the late twentieth century, the development of cybernetics, physical computing and robotics has led artists and researchers to create musical systems that explore the relationship between human bodies and mechanical systems. Anthropomorphic musical robots and bodily integrated ‘cyborg’ sensor interfaces explore complementary manifestations of what we call the ‘anthropomorphic analogy’, which probes the boundary between human artificer and artificial machine, encouraging listeners and viewers to humanise non-musical machines and understand the human body itself as a mechanical instrument.These new approaches to the anthropomorphic analogy benefit from historical contextualisation. At numerous points in the history of Western art music, philosophers, critics, composers, performers and instrument designers have considered the relationship between human musician and musical instrument, often blurring the line between the two. Consideration of historical examples enriches understandings of anthropomorphism in contemporary music technology.This article juxtaposes the anthropomorphic analogy in contemporary musical culture with manifestations of anthropomorphism in early seventeenth-century Europe. The first half of the seventeenth century witnessed a flourishing of instrumentality of all sorts. Musical instruments were linked with the telescope, the clock, the barometer, the paintbrush, and many other instruments and machines, and these came to be understood as vehicles for the creation of knowledge. This flourishing of instrumental culture created new opportunities for contemplation and aesthetic wonder, as theorists considered the line between human being and machine – between nature and artifice. Manifestations of the anthropomorphic analogy in seventeenth-century conceptions of musical instruments help to contextualise and explain similar articulations of the anthropomorphic analogy in the present day.

scholarly journals Scales of sustain and decay: making music in deep time

Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
Philipp Kohl
Keyword(s):  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Musical Instruments ◽  
Radioactive Material ◽  
Industrial Processes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Nuclear Decay ◽  
Electric Guitar ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between the human time of music making and the temporal layers that pervade the natural resources of musical instruments. It therefore offers case studies on two of popular music's most common instruments, the electric guitar and the synthesiser, and their symbolic and material temporalities: guitar players’ quest for ‘infinite sustain’ from Santana to today's effects manufacturers and the ‘psychogeophysical’ approach by artist and theorist Martin Howse, who developed a synthesiser module using radioactive material in order to determine musical events by nuclear decay. While language uses metaphors of sustain and decay as figurative ways to express both musical and planetary dimensions, practices of music offer alternative ecologies of relating the seemingly unrelatable scales of deep time and musical time. If in the Anthropocene humankind becomes aware of its role as a geophysical force, thinking about making music in the Anthropocene requires an awareness for the temporalities involved in the materials at hand. Besides an ecological perspective, the article looks at various media (magazines, ads, and manuals) and thus positions economical mechanisms of the musical instrument manufacturing market as a small-scale experimental setting for larger-scale industrial processes.

The role of affect in practicing a musical instrument: A systematic review of the literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 848-863
Author(s):  
Zofia Mazur ◽  
Mariola Laguna
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Musical Instrument ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Instrumental Practice ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Context Free

Affect impacts people’s cognitive processes as well as provides the energy to pursue goals and engage in actions. Research suggests that affect might influence instrumental learning behavior. This review aims to summarize the existing literature concerning the relationship between affect and instrumental practice. In order to determine the role of affect in undertaking instrumental practice and in engagement in practice, we conducted a systematic search via electronic databases and reference lists; we also hand-searched the key journals. Studies were included in the review if they concerned both affect and practicing behavior in musicians and instrumental students across all age groups and if the relationships between the two constructs were investigated. We focused on individual instrumental practice in the classical repertoire. Eleven studies met our inclusion criteria. They reported quantitative relationships between affect and the amount of practice or qualitatively described the role of affect in practice engagement. The results of this systematic review show that practicing a musical instrument is associated with different types of affect—practice-related, performance-related, and context-free affect. Further investigation of affect in the context of music learning may inform future interventions for instrumentalists motivating them to practice.

Bridging the Gap between User-Centered Intentions and Actual Design Practice

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (19) ◽  
pp. 967-971 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Woods ◽  
Emily S. Patterson ◽  
James M. Corban ◽  
Jennifer C. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Investment Strategy ◽  
Design Concept ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Modeling Error ◽  
Actual Design ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
User Centered

In this paper, we introduce a notation that highlights necessary elements in a practice-centered design process and which can be used to describe a set of common errors committed by design organizations leading to computer-based systems that create new burdens for practitioners. These common design errors result from an organizational tendency to underinvest in modeling error and expertise and using prototypes to discover requirements. The former underinvestment can lead to designs based on uninformed, underspecified, and unexamined models of the relationship between technology and human performance. The latter can lead to commitment to a design concept before fully exploring the range of possible solutions. We suggest ways to avoid these problems by setting forth a balanced organizational investment strategy that would enhance the possibilities for the development of useful systems.

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