Natural interfaces for musical expression

Abstract

This paper presents two main ideas:(1) Various newly invented liquid-based or underwater musical instruments are proposed that function like woodwind instruments but use water instead of air. These woodwater instruments expand the space of known instruments to include all three states of matter: solid (strings, percussion); liquid (the proposed instruments); and gas (brass and woodwinds). Instruments that use the fourth state of matter (plasma) are also proposed.(2) Although the current trend in musical interfaces has been to expand versatililty and generality by separating the interface from the sound-producing medium, this paper identifies an opposite trend in musical interface design inspired by instruments such as the harp, the acoustic or electric guitar, the tin whistle, and the Neanderthal flute, that have a directness of user-interface, where the fingers of the musician are in direct physical contact with the sound-producing medium. The newly invented instruments are thus designed to have this sensually tempting intimacy not be lost behind layers of abstraction, while also allowing for the high degree of virtuosity. Examples presented include the poseidophone, an instrument made from an array of ripple tanks, each tuned for a particular note, and the hydraulophone, an instrument in which sound is produced by pressurized hydraulic fluid that is in direct physical contact with the fingers of the player. Instruments based on these primordial media tend to fall outside existing classifications and taxonomies of known musical instruments which only consider instruments that make sound with solid or gaseous states of matter. To better understand and contextualize some of the new primordial user interfaces, a broader concept of musical instrument classification is proposed that considers the states of matter of both the user-interface and the sound production medium.