Tamas Ungvary

NUNTIUS: A Computer System for the Interactive Composition and Analysis of Music and Dance

This investigation examines the degree to which notational integration of the two media of music and dance is possible. A distinction is made between the interaction of music and dance, and the practical issues of the composer/ choreographer relationship, with a tentative classification of both. The authors then describe their computer-based compositional and choreographic system, NUNTIUS, which provides direct data transfer and interpretation (structural patterns or processes) between the two media.

Tangible bits and malleable atoms in the design of a computer music instrument

We present SensOrg, a computer music instrument designed as a modular assembly of input/output devices and musical software, mapped and arranged according to functional characteristics of the musician-instrument system. Using tangible bits and malleable atoms, we externally represented the musical software functionality in a physical interface which is freezable yet totally flexible.

Designing Musical Cyberinstruments with Body and Soul in Mind

For centuries, traditional musical instruments have been built to control specific types of sound production processes according to the same principles: their control and sound generation parts are typically tightly integrated with a solid physical interface. Current-day digital counterparts lack such requirement of physicality in their control, and very few last more than a couple of years. In this paper, we argue that the flexibility of computer music instrument designs has inhibited the development of dedicated control structures, as well as the training of musicians with associated motor skills. As a candidate solution to this problem we present SensOrg, first in a class of Cyberinstruments that we envision to be a more generic and hopefully long-lasting class of control structures for digital instruments. SensOrg is a hand controlled Cyberinstrument, sculpted from a modular assembly of input/output devices and musical software that are mapped and arranged according to essential functional characteristics of the Human-Instrument system. We discuss how the cognitive ergonomics of non-verbal performance and symbolic compositional tasks influenced the design of our hardware interface. We also sketch the design of our underlying software framework, IGMA (Interactive Gesture Mapping), which provides interactive musical functionality for improvisation, composition and performance alike.

How to Build a Multimedial Communication/Creation System for Music and Human Motion

A multimedial communication/creation system, called NUNTIUS, will be presented. The ultimate goal of the multimedial communication is to allow both transmission of data between the medial modalities and autonomous evaluation and utilization of that data. This goal presuppose the existence of two creation stations, one for music and one for choreography.

The SensOrg: a musical cyberinstrument with a cognitive ergonomic touch

We present the SensOrg, a musical cyberinstrument designed as a modular assembly of input/output devices and musical software, mapped and arranged according to functional characteristics of the man-instrument system. We discuss how the cognitive ergonomics of non-verbal and symbolic task modalities influenced the design of our hardware interface for asynchronous as well as synchronous task situations. Using malleable atoms and tangible bits, we externally represented the musical functionality in a physical interface which is totally flexible yet completely freezable.