Collectively playable wearable music: Practice-situated approaches to participatory relational inquiry.

Seth D Thorn,Halley L Willcox

doi:10.1017/wtc.2021.19

Abstract

We present two practice-situated participatory investigations using networked wearable sensors to develop movement-responsive collectively playable musical instruments: a series of four collocated workshops for expert dancers and a distance learning course in which students use wearable technology to enhance embodied learning and feelings of connectedness telematically. We reflect on our exploration of techniques for structuring ensemble improvisations augmented with bespoke digital musical instruments using aggregate statistical measures, such as variance of participants' physical orientation as an index of group intention. Participatory design exchanges top-down design methodologies with bottom-up approaches consulting actors' interests. We follow this approach by evolving our instruments through abductive experiments and trial-and-error tinkering, without strong theories, methods, or models, using elementary signal processing techniques that are meaningfully understood and modified by participants. Our experiences suggest useful scaffolding techniques for educational transdisciplinary research-creation communities seeking to explore relational ensemble dynamics in telematic and/or physically collocated settings using accessible wearable technologies. Through creative inquiry and participation, technical objects can become bearers of sense and meaning rather than instating mystifying or alienating relations for the participants.

Highlights

Less cost-prohibitive wearable technologies have made once rarefied digital possibilities for movement and computing (MOCO), especially arts-based practice and inquiry, widely accessible
Through a hybrid of bottom-up participatory design, sonic augmentation of movement using wearable computing, and experiential research in group dynamics, we creatively explore how configurations of movement-responsive auditory feedback affect a sense of togetherness in ensembles
Can we interact without a screen using sound and rudimentary wearable sensors? Can these foster a sense of telematic togetherness by facilitating more spontaneous and embodied interactions? What is the minimum signal needed to feel connected, and how scalable are the techniques? We reviewed telematic sonic interaction design and reflected on problems with remote and augmented collaborative learning (Akçayır and Akçayır, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Less cost-prohibitive wearable technologies have made once rarefied digital possibilities for movement and computing (MOCO), especially arts-based practice and inquiry, widely accessible. We describe our work with musical and movement-responsive networked wearable sensors whose collective sonic response we design together with epistemically diverse participants to influence group improvisation dynamics. Networked wearable computing invigorates the possibilities for creating less spatially bounded and less individualistic, collaborative, room-scale digital musical instruments (DMIs). We explore this potential by utilizing statistical aggregates of orientation and movement across multiple wearable sensors for parameter mapping sonification and auditory augmented feedback. 01 Mar 2022 at 15:16:32, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use

Methods

Conclusion