MatheMusical Virtual Museum: Virtual Reality application to explore Math-Music World

Abstract

Virtual Reality is a promising tool for pedagogy in teaching music, and the MatheMusical Virtual Museum takes this promise to a new level. This study aims to share and describe the project's concept and advancement, including expertise and collected experiences in MatheMusic. Mathemusic is the scientific field that studies the relations between math and music; the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music regroups worldwide researchers in the field. The Mathemusical Virtual Museum is an interactive virtual experience that premiered at the Museum of Design in Atlanta (Moda) in June 2022 (Baroin & de Gérando, 2022). It contains a growing set of interactive models based on the research issued by our society. Mathemusicians have always produced models for understanding, analyzing, or computing music. Visualizing some on paper, theater, or computer screens is expected. Even if it is in a multidimensional space (3D-4D), the viewer ends up with a 2D picture or a movie while displaying these models on a computer screen. Planar projection limits the perception in the era of virtual reality nowadays. This study proposes tools and solutions to apprehend these models better and improve the viewer's immersive experience. Since the beginning of the project, user experiences were collected. Besides desperately unfit users for VR, we noticed that kids are highly engaged and immersed in the learning environment; music learners are not just improving their knowledge but also feeling inspired and hopeful about the future of music education; mathematicians and researchers are feeling like they are finally entering their creation and contributing to improving the project, thereby making significant contributions to their respective fields. Keywords: Virtual Reality, Mathemusic, Visualization, Pedagogy, Learning Strategy Received Date: January 31, 2024Revised Date: March 14 , 2024Accepted Date: April 25, 2024