Introduction

Workshop 24-26. November 2010 Zurich University of the Arts, Zürich, Switzerland ICST Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology Organized by: Jan Schacher (ICST) and Karmen Franinovic (IAD Interaction Design) In collaboration with SID COST Action, WG3: Interactive Art and Music

Introduction

The two main themes of the workshop: gesture in (technologically mediated) music and gesture in sonic interaction design (SID) overlap in many domains. They also represent distinct perspectives and motivations on the various subjects present in the field. Although created for different context, issues of creation of interfaces and systems for gestural sound connect research in SID and music. The main discussion will focus on the state of the art in gesture acquisition, segmentation, analysis, recognition, mapping and interpretation for the different artistic and research practices. The workshop will address this by holding group sessions and general discussions, where specific topics and general questions will be addressed. "The concept of musical gestures encompasses a large territory stretching from details of sound-production to more global emotive and aesthetic images of music, [...] In all cases, it is believed that musical gestures manifest the primordial role of human movement in music. For this reason, scholars speak of embodied music cognition [..] i.e. that listening [..] also is a process of incessant mental re-enactment of musical gestures." wikipedia.org musical gesture Gestural interaction is increasingly becoming a part of consumer products such as gaming interfaces or mobile devices. Sound is a medium that suits temporal and continuous multisensory interaction which often enhances immersion and naturalness of interaction. Sonic interaction design builds upon the knowledge from research in musical gesture, yet there are several differences that should be considered. Whereas a musical gesture focuses on expressive qualities and the intended artistic experience of a musician, the sonic gesture is related to everyday experience with products and often their functional or aesthetic qualities. In this sense musical gesture is more complex than sonic gesture that is designed for specific users or most often need be accessible to all. Questions specific to the field of sonic interaction design relate to issues of sonic metaphors, gesture in interactive narratives, performative and aesthetic role of sound in products, evaluation of sonic gesture, gesture in products and applications, musical and sonic gesture in everyday lives etc. Questions in the field musical gesture research are about fundamental issues of perception, proprioception, mental representation, affordances of interface devices and methods and aesthetic directions in artistic processes.

Workshop Format

Participants are encouraged to bring a gesture based project/device and its methods in order to explore the theme(s) of the workshop. Groups are formed and enter into an exploratory mode and experimentation space, where methods are compared, tested, applied and evaluated in small projects. These group explorations form the basis for discussions among all the participants.

Before the Workshop

Before the workshop starts we would like each of you to share information about a project, tool or topic you would like to work on during the workshop. You may upload related materials (videos, sound files, patches, code, writings etc) in a folder on a wiki we have set up and for the workshop. We hope this will facilitate the formation of the groups prior to the start of the workshop.

Photo Credits

Frauke Behrendt and Karmen Franinovic