Let Loose with WallBalls, a Collaborative Tabletop Instrument for Tomorrow

Grant Partridge, Pourang Irani, and Gordon Fitzell

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

Tabletops—and by extension, tabletop computers— naturally facilitate group work. In particular, they provide a fascinating platform for exploring the possibilities of collaborative audio improvisation. Existing tabletop instruments (and digital instruments in general) tend to impose either a steep learning curve on novice players or a frustrating ceiling of expressivity upon experts. We introduce WallBalls, an intuitive tabletop instrument designed to support both novice and expert performance. At first glance, WallBalls resembles a toy, game or whimsical sketchpad, but it quickly reveals itself as a deeply expressive and highly adaptable sample-based instrument capable of facilitating a startling variety of collaborative sound art.

Citation

Grant Partridge, Pourang Irani, and Gordon Fitzell. 2009. Let Loose with WallBalls, a Collaborative Tabletop Instrument for Tomorrow. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1177655

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{Partridge2009,
 abstract = {Tabletops—and by extension, tabletop computers— naturally facilitate group work. In particular, they provide a fascinating platform for exploring the possibilities of collaborative audio improvisation. Existing tabletop instruments (and digital instruments in general) tend to impose either a steep learning curve on novice players or a frustrating ceiling of expressivity upon experts. We introduce WallBalls, an intuitive tabletop instrument designed to support both novice and expert performance. At first glance, WallBalls resembles a toy, game or whimsical sketchpad, but it quickly reveals itself as a deeply expressive and highly adaptable sample-based instrument capable of facilitating a startling variety of collaborative sound art.},
 address = {Pittsburgh, PA, United States},
 author = {Partridge, Grant and Irani, Pourang and Fitzell, Gordon},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1177655},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Tabletop computers, collaborative instruments, collaborative composition, group improvisation, spatial audio interfaces, customizable instruments. },
 pages = {78--81},
 title = {Let Loose with WallBalls, a Collaborative Tabletop Instrument for Tomorrow},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2009/nime2009_078.pdf},
 year = {2009}
}