Let loose with WallBalls, a collaborative tabletop instrument for tomorrow

Abstract

Tabletops --- and by extension, tabletop computers --- naturally facilitate group work. In particular, they provide a fascinating platform for exploring the possibilities of collaborative audio improvisation. Existing tabletop instruments (and digital musical instruments in general) tend to impose either a steep learning curve on novice players or a frustrating ceiling of expressivity among experts. We introduce WallBalls, an intuitive tabletop instrument designed to support both novice and expert performance. At first glance, WallBalls resembles a toy, game or whimsical sketchpad, but it quickly reveals itself as a deeply expressive and highly adaptable sample-based instrument capable of facilitiating a startling variety of collaborative sound art.

Publisher Link

http://www.nime.org/archive/?mode=ylist&y=2009

Citation

Grant Partridge, Pourang Irani and Gordon Fitzell. 2009. Let loose with WallBalls, a collaborative tabletop instrument for tomorrow. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME '09), 78-81.

Bibtext Entry

@INPROCEEDINGS { partridge09b,
    AUTHOR = { Grant Partridge and Pourang Irani and Gordon Fitzell },
    TITLE = { Let loose with {WallBalls}, a collaborative tabletop instrument for tomorrow },
    BOOKTITLE = { Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME '09) },
    YEAR = { 2009 },
    PAGES = { 78--81 },
}