Enhancing Music Interfaces with Soft Materials

Despite the growing popularity of digital music instruments (DMIs) and relevant technological advances, accessibility and expressive potential remain significant challenges for musical interface designers. These issues stem from generic input-output mappings, sensor limitations, and a lack of physical connection between musicians and instruments. This thesis examines the benefits of incorporating soft materials into musical interfaces and why DMIs should be designed with musician-instrument relationships as a priority in order to enhance intuitiveness and expressiveness. This work culminates with design and analysis of a prototype that explores the potential of a foam user interface. Featuring pressure sensors embedded within foam blocks, the prototype encourages tactile interaction and gives the user nuanced control over various musical parameters. The modular design of the foam blocks allows for versatile configurations, enabling users to control multiple parameters simultaneously with simple, but responsive gestures.

Name thesis:degree_name

Bachelor

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Yañez-Laguna, Diego

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Coelho, Marcelo

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157348

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/157348