Block Jam: A Tangible Interface for Interactive Music

Henry Newton-Dunn, Hiroaki Nakano, and James Gibson

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2003
• Location: Montreal, Canada
• Pages: 170–177
• Keywords: Tangible interface, modular system, polyrhythmic sequencer. VISION We believe in a future where music will no longer be considered a linear composition, but a dynamic structure, and musical composition will extend to interaction. We also believe that through the
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176543 (Link to paper)
• PDF link

Abstract:

In this paper, we introduce Block Jam, a Tangible UserInterface that controls a dynamic polyrhythmic sequencerusing 26 physical artifacts. These physical artifacts, that wecall blocks, are a new type of input device for manipulatingan interactive music system. The blocks' functional andtopological statuses are tightly coupled to an ad hocsequencer, interpreting the user's arrangement of the blocksas meaningful musical phrases and structures.We demonstrate that we have created both a tangible andvisual language that enables both the novice and musicallytrained users by taking advantage of both their explorativeand intuitive abilities. The tangible nature of the blocks andthe intuitive interface promotes face-to-face collaborationand social interaction within a single system. The principleof collaboration is further extended by linking two BlockJam systems together to create a network.We discuss our project vision, design rational, relatedworks, and the implementation of Block Jam prototypes.Figure 1. A cluster of blocks, note the mother block on thebottom right

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{NewtonDunn2003,
 abstract = {In this paper, we introduce Block Jam, a Tangible UserInterface that controls a dynamic polyrhythmic sequencerusing 26 physical artifacts. These physical artifacts, that wecall blocks, are a new type of input device for manipulatingan interactive music system. The blocks' functional andtopological statuses are tightly coupled to an ad hocsequencer, interpreting the user's arrangement of the blocksas meaningful musical phrases and structures.We demonstrate that we have created both a tangible andvisual language that enables both the novice and musicallytrained users by taking advantage of both their explorativeand intuitive abilities. The tangible nature of the blocks andthe intuitive interface promotes face-to-face collaborationand social interaction within a single system. The principleof collaboration is further extended by linking two BlockJam systems together to create a network.We discuss our project vision, design rational, relatedworks, and the implementation of Block Jam prototypes.Figure 1. A cluster of blocks, note the mother block on thebottom right},
 address = {Montreal, Canada},
 author = {Newton-Dunn, Henry and Nakano, Hiroaki and Gibson, James},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 date = {22-24 May, 2003},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176543},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Tangible interface, modular system, polyrhythmic sequencer. VISION We believe in a future where music will no longer be considered a linear composition, but a dynamic structure, and musical composition will extend to interaction. We also believe that through the },
 pages = {170--177},
 title = {Block Jam: A Tangible Interface for Interactive Music},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2003/nime2003_170.pdf},
 year = {2003}
}