Web-Based Temporal Typography for Musical Expression and Performance

Sang Won Lee, and Georg Essl

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

This paper introduces programmable text rendering that enables temporal typography in web browsers. Typing is seen not only as a dynamic but interactive process facilitating both scripted and live musical expression in various contexts such as audio-visual performance using keyboards and live coding visualization. With the programmable text animation , we turn plain text into a highly audiovisual medium and a musical interface which is visually expressive. We describe a concrete technical realization of the concept using Web Audio API, WebGL and GLSL shaders. We further show a number of examples that illustrate instances of the concept in various scenarios ranging from simple textual visualization to live coding environments. Lastly, we present an audiovisual music piece that involves live writing augmented by the visualization technique.

Citation:

Sang Won Lee, and Georg Essl. 2015. Web-Based Temporal Typography for Musical Expression and Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1179114

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{slee2015,
 abstract = {This paper introduces programmable text rendering that enables temporal typography in web browsers. Typing is seen not only as a dynamic but interactive process facilitating both scripted and live musical expression in various contexts such as audio-visual performance using keyboards and live coding visualization. With the programmable text animation , we turn plain text into a highly audiovisual medium and a musical interface which is visually expressive. We describe a concrete technical realization of the concept using Web Audio API, WebGL and GLSL shaders. We further show a number of examples that illustrate instances of the concept in various scenarios ranging from simple textual visualization to live coding environments. Lastly, we present an audiovisual music piece that involves live writing augmented by the visualization technique.},
 address = {Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA},
 author = {Lee, Sang Won and Georg Essl},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1179114},
 editor = {Edgar Berdahl and Jesse Allison},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 pages = {65--69},
 publisher = {Louisiana State University},
 title = {Web-Based Temporal Typography for Musical Expression and Performance},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2015/nime2015_283.pdf},
 year = {2015}
}