This thesis collects and contextualizes several projects involving artistically directed prototyping where new artifacts have been developed, in multi-disciplinary groups of practitioners, for use in performance contexts. These projects and their resulting publications have been team efforts, and therefore all papers have more than one author. In the introduction, a complementary perspective to that of the publications is offered, engaging with the characteristics of the digital innards of these artifacts and their digital material qualities. The stance that software source code is a design material is argued, and the notion of the crafting coder is used to view processes that use code as material for artistic creation. Code is also prominently featured in the introductory chapter with examples of some of the central components of the sound processing techniques that have been successfully used in the projects described in this thesis.

The artifacts that are described in the thesis are: The Throat, an instrument for augmenting the singing voice using gestural control in real-time, The Vocal Chorder, a string based instrument using full-body interaction that also allows for audience participation through an installation mode, The Charged Room, a video tracking installation that lets users manipulate sound by moving across a stage, and Nebula, a garment that senses the users movements and responds with sound. These artifacts have been evaluated in the context they are designed for, and not only tested in laboratory settings, to make sure that the knowledge produced is valid. Several performances and peda-gogical courses have been used as empirical foundation for the claims of empowerment, expressivity, and performance qualities ascribed to the developed artifacts.

This dissertation explores value-creation in interaction design through practical collaborations with studio craftspersons. A focus is on the meaning of “preciousness” from a design perspective – what I refer to as Making Preciousness –  which highlights aspects of material properties, design processes, and the attitude to the design space. Theoretically, the work takes inspiration from the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which is based on the fact that things are impermanent, incomplete, and imperfect. This reflects a view of preciousness beyond notions of practical use, luxury or monetary cost. In addition to theoretical studies, I engaged in practice-based research at the intersection of interaction design and studio crafts, in the domains of leather, silversmith and textile crafting. Through an approach that blends these practices with the making of interactive artefacts, preciousness for interaction design was explored.

Through this work, I extract three qualities, all of which are closely linked to attributes and values ​​embedded in the craft practices examined. I refer to these as resourceful composition, material sensuality and the aiming for mattering artefacts. Resourceful composition refers to approaching a design space “resourcefully”, meaning that the designer actively values and uses the specific qualities of materials and tools consciously, for what they are suitable for. Material sensuality is about appreciating the sensory experience of interacting with materials, arriving through particular material qualities, such as texture, temperature or smell, but also interactive qualities. Aiming for mattering artefacts involves actively designing for impermanence, incompleteness and imperfection, and through that contributing to notions of preciousness through use, care, ownership and interaction between users and artefacts over time.

The attitude of making preciousness can be seen as tying together materials and making with user experiences of computational artefacts. For interaction design, this points towards making processes in which computation and material knowledge, craftsmanship and aesthetic intentions are placed at the core. These values ​​relate to cultural, but also sensual experiences, which can be seen as under-explored in the design of interactive products.

This thesis collects a series of publications that all present work where digital musical instruments (DMIs) played a central role. While the papers focus on the individual projects where the DMIs where created, the first part of this thesis describes patterns and insights arrived at by comparing the projects and the DMIs, as well as discuss them in the context of other contemporary research.

The projects described in the included papers all are quite different, but the role I performed in them was consistent in many ways. I position my- self as a craftsperson, and trace the practice of crafting digital musical instru- ments through the projects. As a working metaphor, I present the idea of the DMI-craftsperson as a translator between different domains. This requires a broader outlook than the mechanics of the instruments themselves, including some working understanding of the domains that the DMI interacts with.

The relationship between DMIs and contemporary musical practice is a thread that runs through the work. I criticise the practice of exclusively performing laboratory based evaluations, and the concept of rigid and requirements based evaluations of artistic artefacts. Instead, I argue, relying on Sonic Interaction Design and embodied aesthetics, that the complexities and nuances of perfor- mance can only be fully explored by engaging in long-term artistic practice.