Jiffer Harriman

Crafting Mechatronic Percussion with Everyday Materials

We present a kit comprising cardboard mechanical components and a custom printed circuit board, designed to support novices in building computational percussive instruments with everyday materials. We set three design criteria: accessibility, adaptability, and expressivity. We conducted two workshops with experts and novices to assess the usability of our kit and observe the variety of constructions that users make. The kit enabled both experts and novices to build working instruments and to explore creative experimentation with different materials and objects.

The Kitsch-Instrument: Hackable Robotic Music

We present a modular tangible user interface system and corresponding actuators for creating music with everyday objects. Users create percussive patterns by controlling algorithmic parameters, or by directly playing the interface. Various mechanical solutions allow users to investigate physical objects as sound sources. A standalone physical interface and an associated graphical programming environment enable different levels of user engagement and hardware/software transparency. We discuss a tool space in-between open and closed design concepts, as well as the physical and software design of the Kitsch-Instrument itself. We also describe recent interactions with the interface at a public event and discuss future plans.

Modular-Mus: towards an interaction design toolkit for music

How can we create boundary objects that empower beginners and engage experts? How is creativity and exploration supported in hardware? This paper describes the design and development of a new hardware and software toolkit for creating musical interactions to be demonstrated at DIS. Modular-Mus aims to lower the barrier to entry to working with electronics and musical programming. Transparency coupled with simplicity contribute to enabling an accessible yet deep interaction design tool. The toolkit utilizes audio cables to connect to a variety of sensors, tactile interfaces and output modules, both familiar and atypical of music interactions.

SolidNoise: Making Musical Robots

This late breaking work submission describes the development of tools and techniques aimed to simplify the development and use of musical robots. We describe these tools and techniques as utilized to produce an event known as SolidNoise. The event showcased a series of automated instruments and musical compositions created for the robotic ensemble. Our developments are motivated by historical examples of automated instruments and our vision for musical robots in the future.

SolidNoise: Tools For Making Musical Robots

This Interactivity Demonstration submission describes new tools and techniques aimed to simplify the development and use of musical robots. We describe these tools and techniques as utilized to produce an event known as SolidNoise. The event showcased a series of automated instruments and musical compositions created for the robotic ensemble. Our developments are motivated by historical examples of automated instruments and our vision for musical robots in the future. We will demonstrate our musical robots and the platform used to make them, at CHI.

Sound actuation and interaction

My work is focussed on the intersection of science and creative arts. I am driven to understand ways computation can be used to create natural, intuitive interactions with the physical world. It is important for designers to understand the role of technology and to only apply that which contributes to achieve an aesthetic, practical or artistic goal so as to not draw attention from what is salient about an interaction. This interdisciplinary work requires an understanding of a number of fields. By submersing myself into a community of artists as well as engineers at the University of Colorado at Boulder I am gaining new appreciation into how both view the world. An area of focus for me has been sound actuation in musical instrument and installation contexts. This paper will detail some of my recent research projects and current collaborations.