Micro and Macro: Developing New Accessible Musicking Technologies

Abstract

During the past decades, technological inventions have widened the availability of musical instruments and applications. Different sensors, gadgets and gear open up new ways of thinking about instrument building and design. The main vision behind the development of the apps presented in this thesis is to consider accessibility of musical instruments and technologies. The thesis presents two prototype technologies for musical exploration with motion in the air, which are meant to be accessible for people with low fine motor skills. The thesis explains the relevant background concepts for accessible musical technologies and the design and implementation of the prototypes. User feedback was collected during the implementation and design of the prototypes and has been used to improve the prototypes, iteration by iteration. Qualitative observational studies showed that both people with normal and low fine motor skills were able to explore sound and music with the prototypes. Contrary to the expectation, it was found that avoiding the use of buttons and mouse did not make the apps more accessible for the people with low fine motor skills that participated in the study. It was also found that the speed of action seemed to be more important for people with low fine motor skills than the actual size of the control gesture. The developed prototypes, therefore, seem less musically interesting and probably more difficult to control than some other accessible musical instruments. However, due to being available online, the prototypes offer great potential in being more accessible to a lot of people. Web-based motion capture can allow for reaching much larger groups of people than what has previously been possible. This may ultimately also lead to both more personalized and accessible musical experiences.