ABSTRACT

As we are coming into an age where the computer is widely accepted as a full fledged instrument, it seems that paradigms concerning the performer and the communication model that exist between the performer and the audience, are continuously shifting. This phenomenon appears to exist due to the multi-threaded capacity of the computer musician who’s often building his or her instrument in order to perform his or her own music. Furthermore, the rapid evolution over the past decades of the technology involved in computer music performance can be seen as reason for this fluctuation.

However, it seems that this expansion of technological invention has stagnated and turned into regeneration. Many leading hardware and software developers appear to be focussing on finetuning already famed form factors and concepts. We can respectively find examples in grid based control interfaces such as Novation’s Launchpad Pro and the recent appearance of Bitwig, a clip based DAW such as Ableton Live. Although these small adaptations aim for a more expressive performance strategy, the essence of the system in which they exist remains unchanged. This interphase allows for a deeper analysis of the affordances and constraints intrinsic to both input and throughput layers, thus enabling the computer musician to centralise and calibrate the latter.


This research reformulates these paradigms of input and throughput and proposes a concept of consolidation of the computer musician’s instrument. Furthermore, it introduces a mapping strategy that allows for an artistic performance experience. Hereby, it aims at establishing an intelligible communication model between the computer musician and the audience.