Magnetic Interactions as a Somatosensory Interface

Nicola Privato, Thor Magnusson, and Einar Torfi Einarsson

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Thales is a composed instrument consisting of two hand-held magnetic controllers whose interactions with each other and with other magnets produce the somatosensory manifestation of a tangible interface that the musician generates and shapes in the act of performing. In this paper we provide a background for the development of Thales by describing the application of permanent magnets in HCI and musical interfaces. We also introduce the instrument’s sound generation based on a neural synthesis model and contextualise the system in relation with the concept of magnetic scores. We report on our preliminary user study and discuss the somatosensory response that characterise Thales, observing the interaction between the opposing magnetic field of the controllers as a tangible magnetic interface. Finally, we investigate its nature from the perspective of performative posthumanist ontologies.

Citation:

Nicola Privato, Thor Magnusson, and Einar Torfi Einarsson. 2023. Magnetic Interactions as a Somatosensory Interface. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189218

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2023_54,
 abstract = {Thales is a composed instrument consisting of two hand-held magnetic controllers whose interactions with each other and with other magnets produce the somatosensory manifestation of a tangible interface that the musician generates and shapes in the act of performing. In this paper we provide a background for the development of Thales by describing the application of permanent magnets in HCI and musical interfaces. We also introduce the instrument’s sound generation based on a neural synthesis model and contextualise the system in relation with the concept of magnetic scores. We report on our preliminary user study and discuss the somatosensory response that characterise Thales, observing the interaction between the opposing magnetic field of the controllers as a tangible magnetic interface. Finally, we investigate its nature from the perspective of performative posthumanist ontologies.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {54},
 author = {Nicola Privato and Thor Magnusson and Einar Torfi Einarsson},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11189218},
 editor = {Miguel Ortiz and Adnan Marquez-Borbon},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 numpages = {7},
 pages = {387--393},
 title = {Magnetic Interactions as a Somatosensory Interface},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_54.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}