Music 256A, Week 3
Artful Design, Chapter 2 Response, Mike Mulshine
Chapter 2 of Artful Design takes the reader through two design case studies, Sonic Lighter and Ocarina. In the early days of "smart" mobile phone technology (suddenly we have large touch screens, advanced graphics and audio, ease of application development and access), Sonic Lighter aimed to create a unique interactive experience for the user. It feels like a lighter... but it can't set fire to anything. In this sense, it is useless, but certain design decision made in the production of Sonic Lighter breathe life in to the interface and engage the user in ways a normal lighter may not. The fluid cannister of the lighter is not represented on the screen; instead, the phone is the container. The phone's internal gyroscope provides data for the flame to seem to always burn towards the sky (as with a normal lighter) and if you tilt the phone on its side, the edges of the screen appear (and sound) to singe. Blowing in to the phone's microphone causes the flame to oscillate and, if hard enough, extinquish. If that is not enough, the applicaion packs a social dimension, in which when certain pitches sound, other phone's running the Sonic Lighter app nearby ignite in flame. All of these design decisions take advantage of the unique capacities of new mobile phone technologies. It would be impossible for the designer to replicate the functionality of a real lighter - iPhone's don't yet have the power to produce fire; instead, the app transforms and socially augments the experience of producing a flame a new medium, designed from the ground up within the constraints of that mediue. The author refers to this practice as "inside-out design," which they explore even further in next design case study, Ocarina.
Ocarina takes advantage of mobile phone technology and a simple design aesthetic to create an intuitive and expressive musical interface. The author does best to outline the design details, and I have discussed the details in previous assignments, so I won't delve too deeply in the minutiae. However, I would like to focus on the way in which Ocarina aims to create an experience that encourages more people to engage in music-making. While defending the legitimacy of Ocarina as a musical instrument versus, say, the cello, on Chinese national television, the author recalls a time before modern technologies when families played music together after dinner; when the only way to hear music was to engage in it performatively or observe directly while others performed. The author argues that actively engaging in musical performance enriches our lives, our personalities, and provides joy that provides one of many gateways to experiencing the sublime. I, too, believe that learning an instrument or engaging in music-making is a healthy and transformative experience for any human. Designing new interfaces that provide ease of access to music-making financially, a low barrier of entry in terms of learning how to make sound, and room to grow with the instrument (an extended path towards virtuosity) is an important task, both historically and, perhaps even more so, in the modern age, as fewer people engage in music-making with their own hands. My aim in this class (and, generally, at CCRMA) is to extend this progressive musical instrument invention tradition, and particularly to focus on ensuring that interfaces provide ample room for the user to invent their own performative practices around them; to explore it's sonic possibilities almost infinitely; to discover how to make the music they want to make and feel encouraged to perform with the instrument in traditional and experimental musical contexts. Paired with an understanding of musical performance practice, the design principles and sentiments outline in Chapter 2 of Artful Design lend themselves to creating this sort of profound musical interface.
Chapter 2 of Artful Design takes the reader through two design case studies, Sonic Lighter and Ocarina. In the early days of "smart" mobile phone technology (suddenly we have large touch screens, advanced graphics and audio, ease of application development and access), Sonic Lighter aimed to create a unique interactive experience for the user. It feels like a lighter... but it can't set fire to anything. In this sense, it is useless, but certain design decision made in the production of Sonic Lighter breathe life in to the interface and engage the user in ways a normal lighter may not. The fluid cannister of the lighter is not represented on the screen; instead, the phone is the container. The phone's internal gyroscope provides data for the flame to seem to always burn towards the sky (as with a normal lighter) and if you tilt the phone on its side, the edges of the screen appear (and sound) to singe. Blowing in to the phone's microphone causes the flame to oscillate and, if hard enough, extinquish. If that is not enough, the applicaion packs a social dimension, in which when certain pitches sound, other phone's running the Sonic Lighter app nearby ignite in flame. All of these design decisions take advantage of the unique capacities of new mobile phone technologies. It would be impossible for the designer to replicate the functionality of a real lighter - iPhone's don't yet have the power to produce fire; instead, the app transforms and socially augments the experience of producing a flame a new medium, designed from the ground up within the constraints of that mediue. The author refers to this practice as "inside-out design," which they explore even further in next design case study, Ocarina.
Ocarina takes advantage of mobile phone technology and a simple design aesthetic to create an intuitive and expressive musical interface. The author does best to outline the design details, and I have discussed the details in previous assignments, so I won't delve too deeply in the minutiae. However, I would like to focus on the way in which Ocarina aims to create an experience that encourages more people to engage in music-making. While defending the legitimacy of Ocarina as a musical instrument versus, say, the cello, on Chinese national television, the author recalls a time before modern technologies when families played music together after dinner; when the only way to hear music was to engage in it performatively or observe directly while others performed. The author argues that actively engaging in musical performance enriches our lives, our personalities, and provides joy that provides one of many gateways to experiencing the sublime. I, too, believe that learning an instrument or engaging in music-making is a healthy and transformative experience for any human. Designing new interfaces that provide ease of access to music-making financially, a low barrier of entry in terms of learning how to make sound, and room to grow with the instrument (an extended path towards virtuosity) is an important task, both historically and, perhaps even more so, in the modern age, as fewer people engage in music-making with their own hands. My aim in this class (and, generally, at CCRMA) is to extend this progressive musical instrument invention tradition, and particularly to focus on ensuring that interfaces provide ample room for the user to invent their own performative practices around them; to explore it's sonic possibilities almost infinitely; to discover how to make the music they want to make and feel encouraged to perform with the instrument in traditional and experimental musical contexts. Paired with an understanding of musical performance practice, the design principles and sentiments outline in Chapter 2 of Artful Design lend themselves to creating this sort of profound musical interface.