Morphological evolution of musical interface: design case studies

sergey k kasich

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2023
• Location: Mexico City, Mexico
• Track: Work in Progress
• Pages: 554–559
• Article Number: 78
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189286 (Link to paper)
• PDF link

Abstract:

The recent advancements in digital fabrication has led to a wider access to prototyping in all sorts of fields. Beginning of the last decade was marked by the word “revolution” in relation to “maker’s culture” at least in some publications. This has influenced the sphere of physical computing in arts and NIME sphere as well. As currently there are more and more possibilities to create new instruments, we think that it can be useful to think of approaches to conceptualize these creations. This paper is an attempt to suggest methodology for NIME prototyping, based on evolutionary metaphor. First we observe the application of evolutionary concepts to the field of music technology, briefly discussing its appearance in related publications. We then assemble our own operational concept, which can be used for the direct prototyping of interfaces. Mainly by introducing metaphorical “DNA”, inside which the “gene” of “interactive kinematic concept” is of a particular interest, and also by applying the now obsolete but useful “Meckel–Serres recapitulation hypothesis” (embryological parallelism) as a model for rapid prototyping. Understanding the speculative nature of such an approach we do not offer it as a scientific basis for classification, research or prediction, but as a workable concept for development, which can lead to valuable results. In the end we describe two case studies of NIMEs, which were prototyped in the discussed fashion, showing illustrations and reflecting on the practicalities.

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2023_78,
 abstract = {The recent advancements in digital fabrication has led to a wider access to prototyping in all sorts of fields. Beginning of the last decade was marked by the word “revolution” in relation to “maker’s culture” at least in some publications. This has influenced the sphere of physical computing in arts and NIME sphere as well. As currently there are more and more possibilities to create new instruments, we think that it can be useful to think of approaches to conceptualize these creations. This paper is an attempt to suggest methodology for NIME prototyping, based on evolutionary metaphor.
First we observe the application of evolutionary concepts to the field of music technology, briefly discussing its appearance in related publications. We then assemble our own operational concept, which can be used for the direct prototyping of interfaces. Mainly by introducing metaphorical “DNA”, inside which the “gene” of “interactive kinematic concept” is of a particular interest, and also by applying the now obsolete but useful “Meckel–Serres recapitulation hypothesis” (embryological parallelism) as a model for rapid prototyping. 
Understanding the speculative nature of such an approach we do not offer it as a scientific basis for classification, research or prediction, but as a workable concept for development, which can lead to valuable results. 
In the end we describe two case studies of NIMEs, which were prototyped in the discussed fashion, showing illustrations and reflecting on the practicalities.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {78},
 author = {sergey k kasich},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11189286},
 editor = {Miguel Ortiz and Adnan Marquez-Borbon},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 numpages = {6},
 pages = {554--559},
 title = {Morphological evolution of musical interface: design case studies},
 track = {Work in Progress},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_78.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}