CHI 2005: Conference closes with a Symphony

CHI 2005 came to an unusual end with a musical presentation from Michel Waisvisz of the STEIM Foundation in The Netherlands as closing plenary. His talk and demonstration, or what he called a lecture concertante, "Looking forward by looking back: early gestural interfaces for live electronic music composing and performance", followed a minute's silence remembering Jef Raskin, the Macintosh inventor who died this February.

Waisvisz considers music as a demanding, critical and therefore effective testing ground for experimentation in tangible data interfaces.

He contrasted the rapid change of technology with the length of time required to achieve mastery of a musical instrument. Mastery allows expressiveness, he said. Waisvisz has worked with the same electronic instrument since 1984, but started out using the Theramin, a gesture-sensitive electronic instrument of the 1960s. Waisvisz' early analog and more recent analog/digital experimental instrumental concepts gave hints about directions for future complex data control in the hands of people, as required in situations where electronic communication channels needs to be extended with non-verbal and more emotional content.

Waisvisz touched on many of his interests:
• touch as intelligent agent in musical instruments
• electronic integration of the body in the electronic circuit
• composing by touching data: gestural manipulators for live composing/performing
• multi-level interaction instruments: ranging from meta manipulation to event manipulation
• introducing musical tension: forcing effort into the design of new musical instruments
• fragility as desired design concept for sensitive instruments
• reliability: more guaranteed by cheaper replaceable technology than expensive rare systems
• the unique quality of personal instruments
• animistic interfaces: the intriguing lesson interface designers can learn from puppeteers
• designing new instruments for a future without reliable electricity: gestural generators.

He then provided a virtuoso performance using his own instrument, The Hands, composed of two hand-held keyboards with sensors that respond to the distance between the two hands and to rotational movement and positioning of the hands.

He explained that expressiveness could involve using the body (eg fingertips or multiple players holding hands) to complete electrical circuits. This allows continuous variation of input (analogue) rather than digital / discrete state devices. This opens up expressive possibility. But the instruments also seem to have a life of their own – they are not simply slaves responding directly to any given input.

And he showed a variety of instruments including those inspired by a spider’s web where multiple strands can be pulled to distort the web; each distortion being sensed and used to vary sound outputs.

Despite the steep learning curve, there is a place for mastery, he argued. 'Perhaps we need simple interfaces to computers that allow users to develop mastery – allow people to create new things for themselves – allowing self expression.'

The meeting closed with a symphony of student volunteers each playing one of Waisvisz' scratch-box instruments.

Associated Link: CHI 2005

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