The Laptop Accordion

Aidan Meacham, Sanjay Kannan, and Ge Wang

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The `Laptop Accordion' co-opts the commodity laptop computer to craft an expressive, whimsical accordion-like instrument. It utilizes the opening and closing of the laptop screen as a physical metaphor for accordion bellows, and the laptop keyboard as musical buttonboard. Motion is tracked using the laptop camera via optical flow and mapped to continuous control over dynamics, while the sound is generated in real-time. The instrument uses both skeuomorphic and abstract onscreen graphics which further reference the core mechanics of `squeezebox' instruments. The laptop accordion provides several game modes, while overall offering an unconventional aesthetic experience in music making.

Citation:

Aidan Meacham, Sanjay Kannan, and Ge Wang. 2016. The Laptop Accordion. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176078

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Meacham2016,
 abstract = {The `Laptop Accordion' co-opts the commodity laptop
computer
to craft an expressive, whimsical accordion-like instrument.
It utilizes the opening and closing of the laptop
screen as a physical metaphor for accordion bellows, and the
laptop keyboard as musical buttonboard. Motion is tracked
using the laptop camera via optical flow and mapped to continuous
control over dynamics, while the sound is generated
in real-time. The instrument uses both skeuomorphic and
abstract onscreen graphics which further reference the core
mechanics of `squeezebox' instruments. The laptop accordion
provides several game modes, while overall offering an
unconventional aesthetic experience in music making.},
 address = {Brisbane, Australia},
 author = {Aidan Meacham and Sanjay Kannan and Ge Wang},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176078},
 isbn = {978-1-925455-13-7},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 pages = {236--240},
 publisher = {Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University},
 title = {The Laptop Accordion},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2016/nime2016_paper0047.pdf},
 year = {2016}
}