Abstract
In this article, we describe methods and consequences for giving audience members interactive control over the real-time sonification of performer movement data in electronic music performance. We first briefly describe how to technically implement a musical performance in which each audience member can interactively construct and change their own individual sonification of performers’ movements, heard through headphones on a personal WiFi-enabled device, while also maintaining delay-free synchronization between performer movements and sound. Then, we describe two studies we conducted in the context of live musical performances with this technology. These studies have allowed us to examine how providing audience members with the ability to interactively sonify performer actions impacted their experiences, including their perceptions of their own role and engagement with the performance. These studies also allowed us to explore how audience members with different levels of expertise with sonification and sound, and different motivations for interacting, could be supported and influenced by different sonification interfaces. This work contributes to a better understanding of how providing interactive control over sonification may alter listeners’ experiences, of how to support everyday people in designing and using bespoke sonifications, and of new possibilities for musical performance and participation.
Highlights
Hermann and Hunt define “interactive sonification” as “the use of sound within a tightly closed human-computer interface where the auditory signal provides information about data under analysis, or about the interaction itself, which is useful for refining the activity” [9]
Electronic music performance, the music can be understood as being fundamentally driven by data that encodes performer actions and composer intentions—for instance, patterns encoded on a sequencer, or MIDI messages generated by control interfaces
Whereas new digital musical instruments can be viewed as sonification systems in which performers interact by controlling the data, the approach we consider here incorporates the ability for audience members to interactively alter the sonification mappings
Summary
Hermann and Hunt define “interactive sonification” as “the use of sound within a tightly closed human-computer interface where the auditory signal provides information about data under analysis, or about the interaction itself, which is useful for refining the activity” [9]. We propose that there is an underexplored role for interactive sonification within music performance itself, in which a data sonification might be “played” both for musical purposes (e.g., to create and explore expressive sounds) and to be In all of these cases, audience members might be interested in or otherwise benefit from deepening their understanding of the underlying data. We explore mechanisms to provide audience members with personalised sonification interfaces These support tight interaction loops in which audience members (1) dynamically exercise control over sonification of performer movement data and (2) perceive how their actions and performers’ actions together influence the performance sound.
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