Catching Sparks

Nolan Miranda

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

Originally premiered at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2023, Catching Sparks is a collaborative, interactive, improvisatory game-music installation. In Catching Sparks, up to three participants at a time can use small keyboard peripherals to catch sparks from a spinning wheel. These sparks, which come in different colors and respective sonic palettes, can be consumed to initiate a short (20- to 30-second) improvisation environment in which the player presses buttons to “perform” the spark. Sparks can also be passed to other players, and there are sonic and visual incentives to spreading the wealth if the wheel favors one player more than another. The ultimate goal, discovered on purpose or by accident, is to have three improvisors playing different sparks at the same time, which yields a vibrant visual and sonic display (however short-lived). This piece concretizes a metaphor for creative inspiration and its subsequent expression, a metaphor I often visualize as I compose. One must be in the right place and have the bandwidth to “catch” these bits of inspiration, and it is often more fruitful to collaborate in many expressive situations. With Catching Sparks, I hope to exhibit the playful nature of collaborative musicking in an exploratory paideic environment. To me, being together in community when making music is a panacea for modern fragmentation.

Citation

Nolan Miranda. 2026. Catching Sparks. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20782192 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2026_music_52,
 abstract = {Originally premiered at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2023, Catching Sparks is a collaborative, interactive, improvisatory game-music installation. In Catching Sparks, up to three participants at a time can use small keyboard peripherals to catch sparks from a spinning wheel. These sparks, which come in different colors and respective sonic palettes, can be consumed to initiate a short (20- to 30-second) improvisation environment in which the player presses buttons to “perform” the spark. Sparks can also be passed to other players, and there are sonic and visual incentives to spreading the wealth if the wheel favors one player more than another. The ultimate goal, discovered on purpose or by accident, is to have three improvisors playing different sparks at the same time, which yields a vibrant visual and sonic display (however short-lived). This piece concretizes a metaphor for creative inspiration and its subsequent expression, a metaphor I often visualize as I compose. One must be in the right place and have the bandwidth to “catch” these bits of inspiration, and it is often more fruitful to collaborate in many expressive situations. With Catching Sparks, I hope to exhibit the playful nature of collaborative musicking in an exploratory paideic environment. To me, being together in community when making music is a panacea for modern fragmentation.},
 address = {London, United Kingdom},
 articleno = {52},
 author = {Nolan Miranda},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.20782192},
 editor = {Lia Mice and Nicole Robson and Tara Pattenden},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {June},
 note = {Installation},
 numpages = {4},
 pages = {217--220},
 presentation-video = {https://vimeo.com/895179107/1e8f9f3deb},
 title = {Catching Sparks},
 track = {Music},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2026/nime2026_music_52.pdf},
 year = {2026}
}