Crip Design for Collaborative Musical Interfaces: Iterative Development of Bot Party, a Touch-Based Sonic Game

Phoenix Perry

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

This paper presents the iterative design of \textitBot Party, a collaborative touch-based sonic game and alt.ctrl musical interface that uses capacitive sweeping for inter-player touch detection and IMU-driven motion control as its two interlocking interaction modes. Developed over seven years through practice-led research grounded in crip design epistemology, the project explores how disability-led approaches to interface design produce novel forms of embodied musical interaction. The system consists of three handheld controllers, each with a distinct musical voice controlled by IMU-driven movement, that generate an evolving collaborative soundscape driven by touch mechanics. Beginning as two separate units (a DIY analogue step sequencer and a custom 555 sound synthesis unit designed for group play), the project evolved through four major iterations exhibited at fifteen public venues. The central contribution I develop here is conceptual: crip knowledge production is not an accommodation of an existing design paradigm, but a generative source for new ones. The practice-based themes of embodied joy, care, distributed choreography, sociality, transgression, and the body-as-instrument are presented as supporting evidence for this claim. This research suggests that crip epistemology can serve as a generative framework for expanding the possibility space of musical interface design.

Citation

Phoenix Perry. 2026. Crip Design for Collaborative Musical Interfaces: Iterative Development of Bot Party, a Touch-Based Sonic Game. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20784240 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_78,
 abstract = {This paper presents the iterative design of \textit{Bot Party}, a collaborative touch-based sonic game and alt.ctrl musical interface that uses capacitive sweeping for inter-player touch detection and IMU-driven motion control as its two interlocking interaction modes. Developed over seven years through practice-led research grounded in crip design epistemology, the project explores how disability-led approaches to interface design produce novel forms of embodied musical interaction. The system consists of three handheld controllers, each with a distinct musical voice controlled by IMU-driven movement, that generate an evolving collaborative soundscape driven by touch mechanics. Beginning as two separate units (a DIY analogue step sequencer and a custom 555 sound synthesis unit designed for group play), the project evolved through four major iterations exhibited at fifteen public venues. The central contribution I develop here is conceptual: crip knowledge production is not an accommodation of an existing design paradigm, but a generative source for new ones. The practice-based themes of embodied joy, care, distributed choreography, sociality, transgression, and the body-as-instrument are presented as supporting evidence for this claim. This research suggests that crip epistemology can serve as a generative framework for expanding the possibility space of musical interface design.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {78},
 author = {Phoenix Perry},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20784240},
 editor = {Benedict Gaster and João Tragtenberg and Anna Xambó and Tom Mitchell},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {},
 numpages = {10},
 pages = {660--669},
 title = {Crip Design for Collaborative Musical Interfaces: Iterative Development of Bot Party, a Touch-Based Sonic Game},
 track = {Paper},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_78.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}