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Musical Instruments in the 21st Century pp 97–126Cite as

Movement Meets Material—An Improvisational Approach to Design

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Abstract

How can we integrate an embodied musician-instrument relation to musical instrument design? To answer this question, we have proposed a design process where musical instrument prototypes are developed taking a specific improvisation practice from contemporary dance. Over the course of four improvisation sessions, we invited an acoustic musician, an experimental electronic musician and a contemporary dancer to develop a solo performance with given material. Their improvisations inspired the design of three instrument mock-ups, which integrated movement, material and sound. After four subsequent improvisation sessions the process resulted in two refined instrument prototypes. Using improvisation as a performance setting, our developmental process revealed that for live set-ups the instrument benefits from a reliable system, which allows the musician to perform in a spontaneous and flexible manner. To further engage the musician with the instrument, the sound synthesis process should reflect genuine material sound qualities of the object. Emphasizing its identity as an instrument, we refer to this as material authenticity, a notion, which raises questions on the relationship between material, digitality and sound.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since 2001, the international conference on New Interfaces of Musical Expression (NIME) brings together researchers and musicians who discuss the design of new musical interfaces.

  2. 2.

    Jeff Carey, Interview, April 3, 2014.

  3. 3.

    JC, Interview.

  4. 4.

    Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Interview, November 11, 2014.

  5. 5.

    Nik Haffner is the Artistic Director of HZT (Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz) Berlin. Christina Cuipke holds an MA in Choreography from Amsterdam School of the Arts. During a workshop at HZT Berlin in 2014, Nik Haffner introduced the method to one of the authors.

  6. 6.

    Informances can be described as improvised role-plays with the use of props in front of an audience of peers or clients. Designers use this method to “build an increased empathy for the people that [have been] identified as the users” (Burns et al. 1994, p. 120).

  7. 7.

    “[A]n Experience Prototype is any kind of representation, in any medium, that is designed to understand, explore or communicate what it might be like to engage with the product, space or system we are designing.” (Buchenau and Suri 2000, p. 2).

  8. 8.

    See also Redgate (2016).

  9. 9.

    We purposefully offered four different kinds of material for three rounds of improvisation only so that one material would remain unused in the end of Session 1.

  10. 10.

    The same kind of miking was used by EM during Session 1.

  11. 11.

    In Sessions 3 and 4, we proceeded in the same manner.

  12. 12.

    The acoustic musician had to cancel her participation after the second session for personal reasons; so two prototypes were further developed. Following Session 3, D again consulted EM and CD regarding the technical adjustments of these prototypes.

  13. 13.

    EM, Interview, December 29, 2015.

  14. 14.

    CD, Interview, December 23, 2015.

  15. 15.

    ibid.

  16. 16.

    EM Interview.

  17. 17.

    CD Interview.

  18. 18.

    CD Interview.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the three artists, Lea Danzeisen, Joshua Rutter and Tobias Purfürst, for their voluntary participation in the four improvisation sessions. Only with the help of their artistic input and feedback we were able to arrive at the above-mentioned insights and results. Also we would like to thank Till Bovermann for taking part in Session #4 with technical support in sound programming.

This paper is based upon work of 3DMIN, an interdisciplinary research project of the University of the Arts Berlin and the Technical University Berlin supported by the Einstein Foundation Berlin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zeppelin University, Am Seemoser Horn 20, 88045, Friedrichshafen, Germany

    Johanna Schindler

  2. University of the Arts Berlin, Grunewaldstrasse 2-5, 10823, Berlin, Germany

    Amelie Hinrichsen

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  1. Johanna Schindler
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  2. Amelie Hinrichsen
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Correspondence to Johanna Schindler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für zeitbasierte Medien, Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Till Bovermann

  2. Institut für zeitbasierte Medien, Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Alberto de Campo

  3. Department of Music, University of York, York, United Kingdom

    Hauke Egermann

  4. Audio Communication Group, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Sarah-Indriyati Hardjowirogo

  5. Audio Communication Group, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Stefan Weinzierl

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Schindler, J., Hinrichsen, A. (2017). Movement Meets Material—An Improvisational Approach to Design. In: Bovermann, T., de Campo, A., Egermann, H., Hardjowirogo, SI., Weinzierl, S. (eds) Musical Instruments in the 21st Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2951-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2951-6_8

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