“Clay tone: a music system using clay for user interaction” by Watanabe, Hanzawa and Inakage

We suggest the interaction that used clay. We can operate it simply and freely and enjoy form of clay visually. Because the form is not fixed, users can play freely while imagining it. We enable continuous expression and emotional expression in sight information. The music expression which is not only for a player but also for the observers is possible. Weinberg et al. proposed Musical Ball [1] as a hyperinstrument that allows the user to interact with music by squeezing a ball. It is a musical instrument of a ball made with a flexible and elastic cloth. Users play sounds by grasping and transforming it. Block Jam [2] which Henry Newton-Dunn developed can play music from a pattern of a figure. It is consists of electronic blocks of size of about 5cm *10cm. We set a rhythm pattern to these blocks and put it together. Sight information such as movement of a player is important in music appreciation. Music with visual information of player is different from the music without any visual cue. We feel different music. Blocks and objects are used in studies of the past. These materials give users the sense that an object is fixed and the limited music expression.

1. Weinberg, G., Orth, M., and Russo, P. The Embroidered Musical Ball: A Squeezable Instrument for Expressive Performance. Proceedings of CHI. The Hague: ACM Press, 2000.
2. Iwai. T and Nishibori. Y: “TENORI-ON,” In Proc. SIGGRAPH’05, Emerging Technologies, Los Angeles, 2005.