Using Tangible Interaction to Design Musicking Artifacts for Non-musicians

TL;DR

The paper investigates how tangible interactions can empower non-musicians to engage in active music-making (musicking) through a tangible artifact called Tubularium. Using a Research through Design approach, it presents a seven-tube instrument with dynamic mapping, emotion exploration, history-keeping, AI jamming, quantization, and sound exploration, implemented via Max/MSP and Arduino hardware. Informal observations with non-musician participants suggest the design can elicit melodious sounds and a sense of agency, while highlighting areas for further evaluation and refinement. The work contributes a concrete musicking artifact along with guiding principles that inform inclusive, embodiable music interfaces and outlines a path toward formal assessment of feature efficacy and user impact.

Abstract

This paper presents a Research through Design exploration of the potential for using tangible interactions to enable active music experiences - musicking - for non-musicians. We present the Tubularium prototype, which aims to help non-musicians play music without requiring any initial skill. We present the initial design of the prototype and the features implemented in order to enable music-making by non-musicians, and offer some reflections based on observations of informal initial user explorations of the prototype.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Single note mode in the Tubularium. When a tube is touched, the light inside shines brightly. Several tubes can be touched at a time.
• Figure 2: Controlling interface