talk given at the pixelspaces symposium at ars electronica 2011, for the start of the OHMI challenge http://www.ohmi.org.uk/the-challenge.html main sources for this presentation: 
http://joerg.piringer.net/research/emui.zip?PHPSESSID=ffb91a0e1a90fc4e2eac181caad49ce2 http://www.abendstille.at/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/arbeit-26.4.20101.pdf http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2004/12/29/flow_1204.html http://webzone.k3.mah.se/k3jolo/Material/THAM_preprint_2009.pdf

1. peter purgathofer
purg@igw.tuwien.ac.at
@peterpur

2. interacting with musical instruments

3. Fe atu res
eit
Bl og s Sp otl igh t
omarb
Fo ru ms Ar ch ive s
Dipl ivität:
terakt
Audio > Featu
res
In
ik und Designing Music
e Mus ngen ng mit al Instruments fo
usikerzeugu
h wendu
Elektronisc n Spencer Critchley r Flow
epte, A M
Tools
December 29 200
, Konz es
uch-Interfac
4
ien
Prinzip
MultiTo
If you ask musician
s what they value
another—flow. Flo most about makin
w is that wonderfu g music, most of
l sense of being los them will say—in
disappears, and so t in your work, wh some form or
do distraction, anx en "work" becomes
creator and creatio iety, and just abo joy. Time
n. ut everything else,
yielding to a pure
unity of
So wouldn’t it be
strange if many of
flow? According to today’s musical ins
a recently conven truments were des
ed group of audio igned to prevent or
issued a report sta experts, that seems destroy
ting that most ele
hrt am plain frustrating to ctronic musical ins to be the case. Th
e group
ausgefü chung use—and when it truments are com
plicated, confusing
ungsfors have been around comes to supporting , and just
nd Wirk for centuries. flow, they compar
e poorly to instrume
ltungs- u nts that
für Gesta ät Wien I was the facilitator
Institut niversit for that group, wh
ischen U designed to influen ich formed at this
year’s Project Ba
hn ce music hardware
der Tec and software ove r-B-Q, an annual
unique combinatio r the next five yea conference
n of presentations rs. The conferenc
a surprising number , brainstorming, soc e offers a
of audio innovation ializing, and intense
s. pressure, and it has
yielded
von
nleitung
unter A gathofe
r
eter Pur
.Ass. DI Dr. P
Univ
durch
jörg pir
inger veranstaltung
Wien hmen der Lehr
4, 1040 ausgeführt im Ra
ße 17/1 ar
Favor itenstra 183.xxx - Semin
öck
Matthias Steinb
Len Layton of the
design group sets
nightly electronic up a Reason seq
jam as Sigmatel's uence for Project
Bar-B-Q’s
0527943 syncing additional
instruments to MID
David Roach looks
I Clock proved dis
on. When later atte
mpts at
that flow would imp ruptive, participan
rove greatly if jam
1 534 ts noted
ber 200 Our workgroup wa ming didn't require
s form so many wire

5. How good can you become?
Is there something left to learn after 1 day?
…after 2 days?
…after 3 weeks?
…after 10 years?
Do I want to keep learning for 10 years?

6. How good do you want become?
Will the instrument still be there in 6 month?
…in 2 years?
…in 10 years?
Will it be respected?
Will you want to play the instrument in 10 years?

7. some
aspects of interaction design
for musical instruments

8. simplicity & depth
wide range of input data, but
support »only« one particular activity

9. rich, satisfying feedback
not only information, but
immediate, meaningful, physical feedback
»aesthetics« of feedback

10. use, non-use, misuse
use = playing
non-use includes packing up, transporting, setup etc.
misuse = allow for unanticipated uses

11. determinism, automation, heuristics
with traditional instruments, it's all about control
with electronic instruments (especially auteur instruments),
it's often about giving up control
see »author«

12. development as part of depth
Play It vs. Use It vs. Build it
many electroacoustic intruments are »auteur«-projects

13. aesthetics
aesthetic pleasure seeing, holding, playing it
also for observer

14. interaction aesthetics
s of
esthetic
n
int
s a n a rt
eraction
Toward a
iculatio
öwgren
pliability
rhythm
9
Jonas L 16, 200
t, June
ma nuscrip ultimed
ia
in ia and M
to appear of Hypermed
Review
The New
A BST R
AC T
ough th
e emerg
in g field o
aesthet
f user ex
ic quali
perience
ties in
generall
interact
ing the
ive pro
fundam
y ackno
ducts a
en
wl-
nd
tally
n criti-
dramaturgical structure
fluency
Even th ance of recogniz teractio
e import p roaches eans of in hetic
e dges th la ck of ap ics. By m the aest
ere is a aesthet cterize nd
serv ices, th inte raction gin to chara ea bility a
ture of that be of mall a-
temp oral na ncepts e sense e visualiz
ce four
co fers to th teractiv
introdu . Pli ability re of an in types
cism, I raction kes the
use
tic of ce
rtain
s of inte that ma racteris to the
qualitie raction ant cha raction
pled inte import sical inte rama-
control
tig htly cou hyt hm is an n g of mu ation. D
ting. R nd paci mmunic es, but
captiva sub-seco otional co am
tion om the heral em laying g
ction, fr of perip e role-p st mun
dane
of intera nd flow of onlin the mo
a le ebb a a feature s from articula
te the
hour-sc is n ot only desig n genre to
structure several is a way for our
turgical role in Fluency emands
portant ticated. ltiple d
s an im y sophis dle mu
play llectuall le to ha
n
ore inte e are ab
to the m which w spaces.
ln ess with g mented ties, exp
e-
gracefu ion in au n quali
and act teractio
att ention aest hetic in
hetics,
ion aest
interact

15. pliability

17. pliability
It refers to the user's sense of
shaping a malleable material in a tight loop
of action and response.

18. pliability enables flow

20. s t
A n g
o w get th er e!
l
e to
ng tim
lo
M
f O
ong
es al
E D
it t ak
O R
B
difficulty
skill = time

22. so the question is
are traditional musical instruments complex
or simple? where does the challenge come
from?

23. Piano Tenori-on

24. ✘✘✘

25. LONG TERM GOALS
vs
Instant Gratification

26. Omnomnom!!
I'm yummy!
Eat me!
I'm low fat!

29. LONG TERM GOALS
vs
Instant Gratification

30. ✘ ✘

31. potentialexperience of agency? effective experience?
»(selbst-)wirkungserfahrung«

32. so, make something that is...
allows
creative mis-
ver y simple to use &
und erstand yet gives rich,
imm ensely hard satisfying
to play feedback while aesthetic to
playing look at, hold,
ea sy to t, play and watc
nspor
h
tra , being played
s et up
h andle

33. peter purgathofer
purg@igw.tuwien.ac.at
@peterpur