Cool Papers I read

In preparation for dance SIG, Baird showed me the NIME conference

NIME = International Conference on New Music Interfaces

I found a ton of cool papers and here are two that I particularly liked!

1) The first paper is titled “Eco-Sonic Interfaces for Embodied AI Sound Exploration” by Sabina Hyoju Ahn, Ryan Millett, and Seyeon Park

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Summary:

The researcher’s went to coastal areas and recorded natural sounds.

They then cut and analyzed each sound to find the timbre and other features of the sound. Then, they mapped each feature using a neural network.

This was then made into an interactive experience where sensors track the users movement and allow them to explore the sounds.

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I thought this was pretty cool how they were able to take a non-tangible being and turn it into something tangible.

Things I would like to take away:

Their thought process towards what features were chosen to map and what wasn’t.

Their way of describing the features (using MFCC - I look into something else)

Their use of AI to map features and understand how they trained to accurately understand the “feel” beyond using weights

2) The second paper is titled “Appropriating Technology for Interactive Media in Theatre: Design Strategies and Aesthetic Insights” by Ruoxi Jia & Xuebiao Liu

This paper was pretty abstract and talked about on a high-level the work process of integrating tech into creative spaces

Something they liked was splitting the work flow into 2 categories:

1) Macro - Understanding the big picture and being clear on the vision, the feel and a little lower with picking out the tech, lighting, sound etc to bring that idea to life.

2) Micro - Finalizing the exact inputs by the dancers on a cue-to-cue basis and mapping it to certain outputs from the tech. Moreover, making sure that each output elicits the desired response in the audience.

I also liked when they talked about how each element relies on each other - the movement is reliant on the technology to convey the message, however, the technology needs to know the movement in order to react to it. This causes confusion in the workflow.

This made me add an order of operations to my planning to ensure that things don’t get confused