Few weeks ago we gave the first workshop on Embodied Sonic Interaction Design, here at Goldsmiths, University of London. The workshop is designed collaboratively between Baptiste Caramiaux, Atau Tanaka and myself.
9 participants from different areas of London joined us in a series of activities using the body to enact sonic memories as a starting point to inform the design of sonic interactions.
In the morning we had a session of sonic stretching, which consisted in a series of exercises aim to sensite the participants to everyday sounds.
One of these was the sonic incident.
Participants were asked to think about sounds that they have heard in the last two days and describe the situation and their emotional state, aided by some pre-prepared cards.
This was followed by the Sonic Mimicking Game, a kind of sonic charades, where participants would guess the sounds vocalised by other participants.
It was strictly forbidden to use words. I personally did some foxes having an affair.
Then was time for sketching interactions with sound, imagining a possible gestural intervention on the sounds and the situation previously described.
In the afternoon, Baptiste gave to participants a TECHNICAL TUTORIAL on design gestural manipulation of sound and interactive system. A small 3d accelerometer (Axivity Wax) was combined with a user-friendly Machine Learning toolkit Baptiste is developing at Goldsmiths.
After some tests, participants were grouped and chose one sonic interaction each to prototype, realise, perform and present to the others.
Group 1 recorded the sound using their voice.
Group 2 used freesound.org to find a suitable sample.
Group 3 synthesised the sound from scratch using subtractive synthesis.
A second workshop will be given shorty in NYC, at Parsons, New School of Design, together with Scott Pobiner (Assistant Professor, Designing Strategies).
Thanks to all the participants! We had a great time together and all your feedback was precious!
Alessandro Altavilla, Atau Tanaka, Baptiste Caramiaux.
(also posted on http://eavi.goldsmithsdigital.com/embodied-sonic-interactions-workshop-goldsmiths/ )