Laetitia Sonami has been building new musical instruments for decades and she has so many interesting thoughts about control and interfacing:
- Relections on Eight Years of Instrument Creation with Machine Learning
- Requiem for the lady’s glove
- And now we leave gloves and other wearables to (small) dictators (video of presentation/performance here)
George Lewis is a trombonist and composer who has been improvising with machines for decades as well. His work focuses more on the algorithmic/software side of things, but his ideas still apply to thinking about different paradigms of control and expression as they play out in the interface.
- Too Many Notes: Computers, Complexity, and Culture in Voyager
- Interacting with Latter-day Musical Automata
The New Instruments for Musical Expression, or NIME, conference has been the academic hub exploring expressive interfaces for a few decades now. There are many wonderful papers on specific and general topics related to sound and interaction. If there is sometime specific you are looking for, I recommend using your browser’s seach function.
The Guthman Musical Instrument Competition is another place where music and microcontrollers converge in interesting and odd ways. Take a look at the past participants for ideas and inspiration.
Below is an assortment of papers, essays, and books that I have found relevant to this type of work. If you have suggestions / additions, feel free to add them in the comments!
- Physical Interfaces in the Electronic Arts by Bert Bongers (a good starting point)
- The Hands by Michel Waisvisz
- Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway. This is dense but important, I recommend starting with this interview, which is a bit more accessible.
- Principles of New Media by Lev Manovich
- The Curious Interface by Jane McGonigal (short, thought provoking)
- An Enactive Approach to Musical Instrument Design by Newton Armstrong
- Interface Cultures by Christa Sommerer
- Some Remarks on Musical Instrument Design by Joel Ryan