Proposal

Our proposal is to design a multi-user musical interface. The interface is to encourage people into physical interaction and social interaction with the intention to get people to creatively collaborate to create a music loop. The interface will also teach the fundamentals of rhythm and timing in music.

For this exercise we are proposing the interface be installed into a gallery space such as at the Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) at Federation Square in Melbourne, although the interface can be installed into and adjusted to fit almost any sized space.

How the interface will work is when the space is empty there will be only illuminated dots of different colours on the ground. Each dot will represent a different instrument or sound. The amount of dots available will depend on the size of the space the interface will occupy. When a users walks over to a dot and users press their foot onto the dot a ring interface will circle around the user on the floor. This ring interface will be broken up into 8 segments, with each segment representing a beat in the music loop. Each segment will light up one at a time in a clockwise direction, this will indicate the timing of the loop.
To use the interface all the user has to do is press their foot onto any of the segments, this will light up the segment and turn it on. When the timer gets to a segment that it is turned on it will play a sound relating to the instrument dot the person initiated. This allows people to collaborate and work together to make music as each person can be controlling their own ring interface attached to a instrument. When a user walks out of their interface the interface will fade back to the original dot on the ground and the sounds initiated via the their interface will have faded out.

If a person walking into another ring that is already occupied, the ring will grow from eight segments into sixteen. Depending on the size of the space, each ring can occupy up to four people at anyone time, allowing four people to control thirty two segments for that instrument. This element of the interface further builds on the teamwork aspect.