Abstract:
Named with reference to “viewable” music (and pronounced similarly to music), Vuzik allows a person to compose computer music graphically by full-scale
painting gestures through an mapping of sound to visuals that effectively allows people to "see" their music as they hear it, using a vertical interactive
surface, paintbrush, and icon palette. Use of an interactive surface provides direct freehand painting input of the sound with a tangible paintbrush (as well as alternate
tools or possibly fingers), which additionally nurtures the connection of physical gestures to the resultant sound and visuals. The brushstroke is the performance and creation
gesture that is both seen (as an action and in creating a visual representation) and heard. Another integral part of Vuzik’s design is the use of tangibles to control the
attributes of the sound. Vuzik employs an explicit mapping of visual elements to sound elements, such that the sound produced is consistently related to what is painted on
the canvas. This capability of Vuzik to directly link sound to visuals lets people visualize the music they are creating. Through these interactive elements of combined
tangibles and visual-music metaphors, Vuzik attempts to offer people a range of informative, engaging and fun mechanisms for composing music, hopefully inspiring increased
understanding of music and a desire to explore further.
Researchers: Aura Pon, Ehud Sharlin, Sheelagh Carpendale, Nicolas d’Alessandro, David Eagle, Johnty Wang, Sidney Fels, Junko Ichino
- Publications:
- A. Pon, J. Wang, D. Eagle, E. Sharlin, S. Fels, “A Digital Mobile Choir: Joining Two Interfaces towards Composing and Performing Collaborative Mobile Music”, Proceedings of New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2012). Ann Arbor, Michigan.
- A. Pon, J. Ichino, E. Sharlin, D. Eagle and S. Carpendale, “Graspable Music and Vuzik: Music Learning and Creativity using an Interactive Surface”, Child Computer Interaction 2011. Second Workshop on UI Technologies and Their Impact on Educational Pedagogy (in conjunction with CHI 2011), May 2011, Vancouver, Canada.
- A. Pon, J. Ichino, E. Sharlin, D. Eagle, S. Carpendalea, “Vuzik: An Interactive Surface Application for Music Visualization and Creation”, Technical Report 2011-1010-22, August 2011 , University of Calgary, AB, Canada.
- A. Pon, J. Ichino, E. Sharlin and D. Eagle, “Vuzik: Music Creation and Comprehension through Painting” Departmental Technical Report 2011-994-06, February 11, 2011, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, AB, Canada, 2011.
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