Daniel Hug

Investigating narrative and performative sound design strategies for interactive commodities

Computing technologies turn everyday artefacts into narrative, procedural objects. This observation suggests that the narrative sound design strategies used in films and many video games could also be applied for the design of interactive commodities. However, it is unknown whether these strategies from immersive media can be applied in physical artefacts of everyday use. In this paper we describe methodological considerations and outline a structure of a revisable, design oriented, participatory research process, which allows to explore narrative sound designs and their possible application in interactive commodities in a systematic yet explorative way. The process, which focused on interpretational aspects, has been applied in two workshops and their results are reported and discussed. The experience of the prototyping and evaluation method, which made use of theatrical strategies, raised important questions about the role of performativity in the emergence of meaning and the possible limitations of a strictly hermeneutic aesthetics, when dealing with sonically enhanced interactive commodities.

Towards a conceptual framework to integrate designerly and scientific sound design methods

Sound design for interactive products is rapidly evolving to become a relevant topic in industry. Scientific research from the domains of Auditory Display (AD) and Sonic Interaction Design (SID) can play a central role in this development, but in order to make its way to market oriented applications, several issues still need to be addressed. Building on the sound design process employed at the Sound Perception and Design (SPD) team at Ircam, and the information gathered from interviews with professional sound designers, this paper focuses on revealing typical issues encountered in the design process of both science and design oriented communities, in particular the development of a valid and revisable, yet innovative, design hypothesis. A second aim is to improve the communication between sound and interaction designers. In order to address these challenges, a conceptual framework, which has been developed using both scientific and designerly methods, was presented and evaluated using expert reviews.

Performativity in design and evaluation of sounding interactive commodities

This paper discusses the relevance of performativity and the need for improvisational methods in sound design for interactive commodities. Both the impact on design methods and on the evaluation of experience prototypes are investigated. Several sound design techniques are proposed that help to exploit performativity and improvisation without compromising on sonic elaboration. In particular, a combination of Foley and realtime control of multisamples and sound processing was used. The analysis of several prototypes which were created in workshop settings, partially in collaboration with industry, provides further insights on the impact of performativity on sonic interaction design and evaluation.

Basic exploration of narration and performativity for sounding interactive commodities

We present an exploration in sonic interaction design, aimed at integrating the power of narrative sound design with the sonic aesthetics of a physics-based sound synthesis. The emerging process is based on interpretation, and can represent a novel tool in the education of the future generation of interaction designers. In addition, an audio-tactile paradigm, that exploits the potential of the physics-based approach, is introduced.

Bringing musicality to movement sonification: design and evaluation of an auditory swimming coach

In this paper we describe a novel approach to the sonification of crawl swim movement. The design method integrates task and data analysis from a sport science perspective with subjective experience of swimmers and swimming coaches, and strongly relies on the skills of musicians in order to define the basic sonic design. We report on the design process, and on the implementation and evaluation of a first prototype.