In a vision-centric world computer music software is mainly realized and operated through graphical interfaces in order to arrange, compose or perform. This excludes musicians that only have limited or no access to visual information, such as visually impaired and blind persons. Based on the concepts of tangible interaction design, new interfaces for musical expression and human-computer interaction, the following questions came up: can tangible musical interaction provide benefits for visually impaired and blind musicians? Does it contributes to the artistic expression during composition and live performance?

This PhD research project Tangible Signals (2018-2025) focussed on tangible musical interaction and investigated the potential benefits for visually impaired and blind musicians. In collaboration with the Institute for the Blind Vienna I developed a series of musical and tangible tools in order to conduct workshops, to enable performances and closely examine how this contributes to artistic expression. To enable accessible music making with the computer the music environment Welle was developed. In addition, three tangible musical interfaces were developed that provide interactive physical access to various sonic features such as envelopes, pattern sequences and continuous controls for volume or panorama values. Expert feedback was gathered during interviews, workshops, demos. The blind musician Erich Schmid composed and performed his piece „Stimmungen“ with this setup.

 

Tangible Signals was realized at the Tangible Music Lab, University of Arts Linz under the supervision of Martin Kaltenbrunner and in collaboration with the Institute for the Blind Vienna. It was supported by the DOC Funding of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Media, University of Arts Linz, Austria.

The dissertation „Jens Vetter - Tangible Signals“ is available as PDF in the library of the University of Arts Linz. 

experiment and play with Welle online at:
https://welle.live

 

live composition with Tangible Signals interfaces

Live composition based on tangible musical interaction using three devices developed during the research project Tangible Signals. The devices interact with a custom software written in SuperCollider and enable interactive control of features such as play & mute states, volume & panorama values, as well as envelope settings of the delay effects.

 

 

live coding Welle with tangible sequencer

example of live coding with Welle and the tangible sequencer

 

 

live concert by  Erich Schmid at the OCC  in Vienna

 

Live concert Stimmungen (Moods) by Erich Schmid at the OCC - Austrian Computer Camp for visually impaired and blind children 2023 at the BBI Vienna. The concert took place as part of the research project Tangible Signals. 

Thanks to Elisa Unger for camera, photos and technical support.

 

Related Publications

Vetter, J. 2025. Tangible Signals - Physical Representation of Sound and Embodied Control Feedback. Kunstuniversität Linz. https://doi.org/10.57697/J9YX-JX98

Vetter, J., Kaltenbrunner, M., Schmid, E. 2024. Sonic Interactions - Towards Accessible Digital Music-Making. In: Miesenberger, K., Peňáz, P., Kobayashi, M. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2024. link

Jens Vetter. 2020. WELLE - a web-based music environment for the blind. NIME '20, Birmingham, United Kingdom. link pdf

Jens Vetter. 2019. Tangible Signals - Physical Representation of Sound and Haptic Control Feedback. TEI '19: International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Tempe, USA. link pdf