This paper describes two site-specific musical compositions, focusing on how modelling was used in their respective composition processes. Primarily, the acoustics of the sites were modelled to aid in the preparation and composition of the pieces. From this we propose the general use of modelling as a way to work with the concept of site. But the idea of formulating a model is also applicable more widely in the work described and this is discussed with the two pieces as starting points. Both pieces use acoustic room scale feedback as their only source of sound, so the impact of the room, speakers and microphones used is immense. The first piece, Rundgång, is a commission for the GRM Acousmonium. The second piece, Clockwork, is a public installation that will also be the site of a performance, combining the installation with live interventions. Clockwork will also employ modelling as a component of the piece itself, and include a remote performer and a remote audience. We suggest that there are possibilities to employ compositional strategies to embrace these kinds of hybrid presence situations by composing for many vantage points.

Existing works on interactive sonification of movements, i.e., the translation of human movement qualities from the physical to the auditory domain, usually adopt a predetermined approach: the way in which movement features modulate the characteristics of sound is fixed. In our work we want to go one step further and demonstrate that the user role can influence the tuning of the mapping between movement cues and sound parameters. Here, we aim to verify if and how the mapping changes when the user is either the performer or the observer of a series of body movements (tracing a square or an infinite shape with the hand in the air). We asked participants to tune movement sonification while they were directly performing the sonified movement vs. while watching another person performing the movement and listening to its sonification. Results show that the tuning of the sonification chosen by participants is influenced by three variables: role of the user (performer vs observer), movement quality (the amount of Smoothness and Directness in the movement), and physical parameters of the movements (velocity and acceleration). Performers focused more on the quality of their movement, while observers focused more on the sonic rendering, making it more expressive and more connected to low-level physical features.

This paper presents the utruchirp software, a tool for measuring impulse responses and modelling room acoustics in real time through auralisation based on convolution using those responses. utruchirp is the result of concerns and needs emerging from the authors' ongoing artistic practice, exploring room scale acoustic feedback as material for live performance, installations, and fixed media pieces as utrumque. The paper provides the technical and, more importantly, the artistic details of the development of utruchirp and its features, highlighting those that are the direct result of insights from artistic work: Monitoring of all stages of measuring and signal processing, auralisations of the measurements from within the measurement process, and integrated round trip delay estimation. Finally, it points out future directions and features that are to be explored next, with an invitation for collaborative efforts, aiming to bring the sensibilities of musical instruments to our measurement tools.

In this paper we present the Nebula, a garment that translates intentional gestures and implicit interaction into sound. Nebula is a studded cloak made from a heavy fabric that envelopes the wearer with pendulous folds and has strong experiential qualities that were especially appreciated by performing artists. We describe the design process in detail, and highlight three material investigations that show material connections that were fundamental to the experience of the garment: How the draping and construction of the garment allowed for implicit interaction, how the studs were used both as a computational sensing material and a strong visual component, and how the sound design exploited tangible material qualities in the garment. We offer these three material investigations as contributions and discuss how material investigations more broadly can produce evocative connections in the materials available in design work, but also as a way to extract legible design intentions for other designers and researchers.

In this paper we present three different experiments designed to explore sound properties associated with fluid movement: (1) an experiment in which participants adjusted parameters of a sonification model developed for a fluid dance movement, (2) a vocal sketching experiment in which participants sketched sounds portraying fluid versus nonfluid movements, and (3) a workshop in which participants discussed and selected fluid versus nonfluid sounds. Consistent findings from the three experiments indicated that sounds expressing fluidity generally occupy a lower register and has less high frequency content, as well as a lower bandwidth, than sounds expressing nonfluidity. The ideal sound to express fluidity is continuous, calm, slow, pitched, reminiscent of wind, water or an acoustic musical instrument. The ideal sound to express nonfluidity is harsh, non-continuous, abrupt, dissonant, conceptually associated with metal or wood, unhuman and robotic. Findings presented in this paper can be used as design guidelines for future applications in which the movement property fluidity is to be conveyed through sonification.

Sound Forest is a music installation consisting of a room with light-emitting interactive strings, vibrating platforms and speakers, situated at the Swedish Museum of Performing Arts. In this paper we present an exploratory study focusing on evaluation of Sound Forest based on picture cards and interviews. Since Sound Forest should be accessible for everyone, regardless age or abilities, we invited children, teens and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities to take part in the evaluation. The main contribution of this work lies in its fndings suggesting that multisensory platforms such as Sound Forest, providing whole-body vibrations, can be used to provide visitors of diferent ages and abilities with similar associations to musical experiences. Interviews also revealed positive responses to haptic feedback in this context. Participants of diferent ages used diferent strategies and bodily modes of interaction in Sound Forest, with activities ranging from running to synchronized music-making and collaborative play.

In this paper, an installation is presented that connects Stanford and Stockholm through a one-of-a-kind combination of instrument and venue: the Skandia Wurlitzer theatre organ (Wurlitzer serial no. 1254) situated in the KTH R1 Experimental Performance Space, a disused nuclear reactor. A continuous stream of musical data, audio, and video between the two places explored the capabilities of the digital to play with the concepts of presence and embodiment, virtuality and the physical. In the installation, a series of performances presented new pieces written especially for this setting. The pieces were performed by musicians in Stanford, mediated in real-time, allowing them to play together with the theatre organ in Stockholm, temporarily fusing the two venues to create one ensemble, one audience, in one space.

This Studio offers researchers and designers an opportunity to investigate and discuss prototypes and in-process projects from a perspective that expands beyond material aspects, to also cover social and cultural ones. Participants will bring a project, device, or platform, which will be discussed as sociomaterials that actively participate across multiple social and cultural contexts. This perspective, as well as the prototypes and projects brought by the participants, forms the core of the Studio, where conversation will emerge over several phases: from the demonstration of the individual projects as things, to the generation of speculative fictions as to the role and use of these artifacts in the world. Finally, we end with a discussion of infrastructuring and appropriation of the artefacts and their social roles. The themes that will be examined in this Studio are agency, emerging behaviors, embeddedness and design strategies from a sociomaterial perspective of artifacts.

In the medieval tradition of ballads, a recurring theme is that of transformation. In a staged concert for chamber orchestra, singers and dancers called Varelser och Ballader (Beings and Ballads), we explored this theme using ballads coupled with contemporary poetry and new music. The performance made use of custom-made digital musical instruments, using video analysis and large-scale physical interfaces for transformative purposes. In this article, we describe the piece itself as well as how uncanny qualities of the digital were used to emphasize eerie themes of transformation and deception by the supernatural beings found in the medieval ballads.

In this paper we present a study of the interaction with a large sized string instrument intended for a large installation in a museum, with focus on encouraging creativity,learning, and providing engaging user experiences. In the study, nine participants were video recorded while interacting with the string on their own, followed by an interview focusing on their experiences, creativity, and the functionality of the string. In line with previous research, our results highlight the importance of designing for different levels of engagement (exploration, experimentation, challenge). However, results additionally show that these levels need to consider the users age and musical background as these profoundly affect the way the user plays with and experiences the string.