Interaction, instruments and performance: HCI and the design of future music technologies

Rationale There has been little chance for researchers, performers and designers in the UK to come together in order to explore the use and design of new and evolving technologies for performance. This workshop examines the interplay between people, musical instruments, performance and technology. Now, more than ever technology is enabling us to augment the body, develop new ways to play and perform, and augment existing instruments that can span the physical and digital realms. By bringing together performers, artists, designers and researchers we aim to develop new understandings how we might design new performance technologies. Some Topics - Methods and Approaches; What are the methods and approaches that we can employ to understanding interaction and interplay in performance and what impact does technology have on this? - Sonic Augmentation; can performance and sound change the experiential attributes of places, e.g. make them more accessible, more playful? -Physical/digital augmentation; how can one augment one’s self or existing musical instruments and artifacts physically and digitally? - Meaning and Mediation; can people narrate or make sense and movement as part of performance – how does the audience understand this? - Mobility and Immobility; performance and movement, what are the dynamics of performing at rest or whilst mobile, how can technology supported co-located and distributed performance and reception? - Locating Content and Spatialisation; how is performance located, how does sound and performance become part of the spatial fabric and what software tools can support this? - Personalization and Reflection; how can people use new performance technologies to narrate and reflect upon experiences – both as performer and spectator? These are some tentative implications and questions that we expect to address in the workshop. Goals The main goal of the workshop is to bring people together to discuss the issues mentioned previously and to explore this emergent space. As part of Audio Mostly we would like to build this community and develop a network that would engender ongoing participation, debate, scholarship and collaboration. The workshop would also like to encourage early career researchers and PhD students to attend in order to grow the community