Non-Rigid Musical Interfaces: Exploring Practices, Takes, and Future Perspective

Alberto Boem, Giovanni M Troiano, Giacomo and Lepri, and Victor Zappi

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Non-rigid interfaces allow for exploring new interactive paradigms that rely on deformable input and shape change, and whose possible applications span several branches of human-computer interaction (HCI). While extensively explored as deformable game controllers, bendable smartphones, and shape-changing displays, non-rigid interfaces are rarely framed in a musical context, and their use for composition and performance is rather sparse and unsystematic. With this work, we start a systematic exploration of this relatively uncharted research area, by means of (1) briefly reviewing existing musical interfaces that capitalize on deformable input,and (2) surveying 11 among experts and pioneers in the field about their experience with and vision on non-rigid musical interfaces.Based on experts’ input, we suggest possible next steps of musical appropriation with deformable and shape-changing technologies.We conclude by discussing how cross-overs between NIME and HCI research will benefit non-rigid interfaces.

Citation:

Alberto Boem, Giovanni M Troiano, Giacomo and Lepri, and Victor Zappi. 2020. Non-Rigid Musical Interfaces: Exploring Practices, Takes, and Future Perspective. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4813288

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{NIME20_3,
 abstract = {Non-rigid interfaces allow for exploring new interactive paradigms that rely on deformable input and shape change, and whose possible applications span several branches of human-computer interaction (HCI). While extensively explored as deformable game controllers, bendable smartphones, and shape-changing displays, non-rigid interfaces are rarely framed in a musical context, and their use for composition and performance is rather sparse and unsystematic.  With this work, we start a systematic exploration of this relatively uncharted research area, by means of (1) briefly reviewing existing musical interfaces that capitalize on deformable input,and (2) surveying 11 among experts and pioneers in the field about their experience with and vision on non-rigid musical interfaces.Based on experts’ input, we suggest possible next steps of musical appropriation with deformable and shape-changing technologies.We conclude by discussing how cross-overs between NIME and HCI research will benefit non-rigid interfaces.},
 address = {Birmingham, UK},
 author = {Boem, Alberto and Troiano, Giovanni M and and Lepri, Giacomo and Zappi, Victor},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.4813288},
 editor = {Romain Michon and Franziska Schroeder},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {July},
 pages = {17--22},
 presentation-video = {https://youtu.be/o4CuAglHvf4},
 publisher = {Birmingham City University},
 title = {Non-Rigid Musical Interfaces: Exploring Practices, Takes, and Future Perspective},
 url = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2020/nime2020_paper3.pdf},
 year = {2020}
}