The Airborne Instruments nUFO: a Movement Based Musical Instrument for Possibility Space Exploration

EasyChair Preprint no. 1413, version 2

Abstract

The Airborne Instruments nUFO (nontrivial/new flying object) is a new movement based Digital Music Instrument designed for maximal motional freedom of the performer. A handheld wireless Interactor digitizes large scale movement via a 9-axis IMU together with a set of 8 touch-sensitive pads for fine motor finger action. The corresponding software, nUFO_App, applies elaborate meta-mapping strategies (called Influx) to the movement data to inform a number of sound processes such that even very simple movements create complex changes in the sound, which frees players from distracting technical concerns, and empowers them to focus on playing by listening and intuitive motion.
The nUFO distills 15 years of research into complex sound synthesis, just-in-time programming, modal control, and meta-control strategies with a physical Interactor, ergonomically designed from scratch for intuitively exploring the possibility spaces of such systems.

Keyphrases: entanglement, Influx, Mapping, Metacontrol, NIME, possibility space, Post Control, rich inner life, sensor, SuperCollider, Wireless

@Booklet{EasyChair:1413,
  author = {Hannes Hoelzl and Isak Han and Alberto de Campo},
  title = {The Airborne Instruments nUFO: a Movement Based Musical Instrument for Possibility Space Exploration},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 1413},

  year = {EasyChair, 2019}}