An experimental audio-tactile interface for sculpting digital resonance models using modelling clay

Abstract

Programming interfaces are still monopolised by the typewriter and paper emulator display. This makes programming exclusionary towards anyone for whom such interfaces are unpleasant, unnatural or unusable. Further, this monopoly excludes every other human faculty that might be used to express unexpressed programs through unimagined means. To destablise this status quo, alternative programming models have been sought which are more amenable to a wider range of interfaces. We believe a complimentary approach to be broadening the search for programming interfaces by excluding the need for an explicit programming model at first. We present an experimental audio-tactile interface for sculpting digital resonance models using clay, along with preliminary reflections from a study with 34 musicians, luthiers and other craftspeople. We reflect on how tracing the emergence of tacit and embodied knowledge about an unfamiliar, implicit programming interface could inspire different ideas about programming models and other aspects of programming systems.