OtoMushi: touching sound

Abstract

OtoMushi (sound insect in Japanese) is a new platform for interacting with sound samples. Each sample is represented as an insect where the body of the insect shows the waveform of the sample: stroking a part of the body plays the correspond part of the sample back, with the specified speed and direction. Using living insects as a representation of sounds, operations such as mixing and cutting have their natural equivalent: when two insects mate, they give birth to a new sound-insect that represents a mix of the two parents. Similarly, cutting a sound to trim some parts can be done by slashing the body of the insect. We applied this concept to three differents systems: a tabletop surface designed to record everyday's sound environment, a phone system to get the insects to speak on your behalf and a portable application to collect interesting sounds on the go. Finally we discuss the relevant interface issues.