Pensato: A Virtual Reality Framework for Musical Performance

<p>This thesis presents the design for a method of controlling music software for live performance by utilising virtual reality (VR) technologies. By analysing the performance methods of artists that use either physical or gestural methods for controlling music, it is apparent that physical limitations of musical input devices can hamper the creative process involved in authoring an interface for a performance. This thesis proposes the use of VR technologies as a central foundation for authoring a unique workspace where a performance interface can be both constructed and performed with. Through a number of design experiments using a variety of gestural input technologies, the relationship between a musical performer, interface, and audience was analysed. The final proposed design of a VR interface for musical performance focuses on providing the performer with objects that can be directly manipulated with physical gestures performed by touching virtual controls. By utilising the strengths provided by VR, a performer can learn how to effectively operate their performance environment through the use of spatial awareness provided by VR stereoscopic rendering and hand tracking, as well as allowing for the construction of unique interfaces that are not limited by physical hardware constraints. This thesis also presents a software framework for connecting together multiple musical devices within a single performance ecosystem that can all be directly controlled from a single VR space. The final outcome of this research is a shared musical environment that is designed to foster closer connections between an audience, a performer and a performance interface into a coherent and appealing experience for all.</p>

Pensato: A Virtual Reality Framework for Musical Performance

<p>This thesis presents the design for a method of controlling music software for live performance by utilising virtual reality (VR) technologies. By analysing the performance methods of artists that use either physical or gestural methods for controlling music, it is apparent that physical limitations of musical input devices can hamper the creative process involved in authoring an interface for a performance. This thesis proposes the use of VR technologies as a central foundation for authoring a unique workspace where a performance interface can be both constructed and performed with. Through a number of design experiments using a variety of gestural input technologies, the relationship between a musical performer, interface, and audience was analysed. The final proposed design of a VR interface for musical performance focuses on providing the performer with objects that can be directly manipulated with physical gestures performed by touching virtual controls. By utilising the strengths provided by VR, a performer can learn how to effectively operate their performance environment through the use of spatial awareness provided by VR stereoscopic rendering and hand tracking, as well as allowing for the construction of unique interfaces that are not limited by physical hardware constraints. This thesis also presents a software framework for connecting together multiple musical devices within a single performance ecosystem that can all be directly controlled from a single VR space. The final outcome of this research is a shared musical environment that is designed to foster closer connections between an audience, a performer and a performance interface into a coherent and appealing experience for all.</p>

“Only Connect:”

This chapter understands the fundamental task of a pre-concert lecture as one of connecting both with the music and with the audience, and doing so with the aim of encouraging more active listening. Techniques for effective pre-concert lectures include presenting the most salient aspects of the music, such as beginnings, endings, primary themes, and other notable features; deploying compelling metaphors to describe these features; making comparisons to other pieces of music for the purpose of profiling a piece’s individuality; and generally aspiring to achieve performative intensity through well-crafted rhetoric, physical gestures, and an ongoing infusion of one’s own passion for the music under consideration. The chapter is illustrated with several brief excerpts from the author’s own pre-concert lectures.

Recovery of Functional Mobility with a Long-Term Nursing Facility Patient Utilizing the Fascial Distortion Model: A Case Study

Functional immobility has demonstrated a higher risk of all-cause mortality in geriatric population. It is noted that musculoskeletal pain is one major factor involved with geriatric functional immobility. The fascial distortion model (FDM) utilizes pathognomonic physical gestures to diagnose and treat musculoskeletal pain. In this case study, a long-term nursing facility patient with significantly prolonged wheelchair-to-bed transfer presented with several upper and lower extremity fascial distortions. After FDM treatment, the patient demonstrated a moderate return of functional mobility. This case presents the utility of FDM treatment in cases of decreased functional mobility due to musculoskeletal pain as well as treatment for patients in skilled nursing facility settings.

Teacher-Student Relationships at a Kindergarten School as Viewed from Classroom Management Principles

Quality classroom management contributes to creating learning environment that allows the realization of various teacher roles. One way to support this is by building good teacher-student relationship. This study aims at describing the relationship between teachers and students at a kindergarten school in Malang and discusses its aspects in relation to classroom management principles. After conducting qualitative research using one-week classroom observation and literature study, this study found that almost all aspects of teacher-student relationship were identified, namely conducting informal conversations with students, paying attention to students’ activities, using physical gestures and movements, implementing positive interaction strategies, providing affirmative reactions to incorrect responses, and exhibiting an assertive connection. The other aspect that was missed was acknowledging students’ different characteristics

Running Fast and Standing Slow: a Study on the Effect of Gesture Posing on Time Perception

Everyone has 24 hours in a day, but this does not feel the same for everyone. Time perception can be subjective and is affected by a wide range of factors. Studies have shown that presenting pictures with actions can bias observers’ performance in a duration reproduction task. Instead of watching pictures of actions, this research explored the effect of gesture posing on such a time perception bias. Sixty participants were assigned into either a watching or posing group. Compared with the corresponding baseline performance, participants overestimated time duration when viewing or posing pictures suggesting action. A corresponding underestimation was observed when the pictures or gestures suggested inaction. The role of physical gestures and their potential effect on time perception based on the embodiment account is discussed. Further investigation is also proposed to examine the role of the embodiment effect on subsecond time intervals.

The Handwavey Game

In this design case, we describe The Handwavey Game (Handwavey)—a tabletop, cooperative role-playing game created to study how people can come to converge on novel physical gestures around meaning. In Handwavey, players are novice wizards who cast spells through signaling abstract images with hand movements: success is rewarded in-game and failure has humorous in-game consequences. This case walks through the path of exploration and development from the starting point of a research question to the development of game mechanics and concludes with a set of design recommendations for people interested in designing novel games with specific research or learning meta-goals.

Carnal Hospitality

This chapter makes a plea for a “double hospitality” involving both word and touch. An ethics of hospitality, as shown in the previous chapters, involves empathizing with others through the exchange of stories, memories, and faiths—the aim being to work through the wounds of history and open a space for charity and gift. Here law is supplemented by love; and in this step toward a higher poetics of pardon there comes a point where narrative exchange—of histories, traditions, confessions, testimonies—often needs to be supplemented by an exchange of physical gestures. A point where narrative hospitality calls for carnal hospitality. Where the textual solicits the tactile. Where word gives way to touch.

Cloth and the Rituals of Encounter in La Florida

Elaborate rituals, from the cleared space of encounter to physical gestures and gifts, developed over the course of the sixteenth century in La Florida as Native met European. Searching for a common symbolism between cultures is often limited to those items that both groups recognize and use in a similar fashion. Those are frequently reduced to lived experiences, or the material culture of the body: food, shelter, and clothes. Almost all early Florida encounter rituals involved the body: touch, perception, and presentation of physical form. As this code developed, clothes became one of the most common methods of achieving connections as individuals chose items of dress to do some of the work of cultural interpretation that resonated with their own experiences and parent cultures. Beginning with early Spanish Florida and moving chronologically as other European powers entered the region, this chapter explores how these metaphorical encoding and decoding sessions developed. In the discursive and physical worlds of the early American southeast, textiles were key metaphors for connection and recognition. By the end of the sixteenth century, many Native groups from Carolina to Florida had a working knowledge of European textiles and their metaphorical role in the rituals of encounter.

Databases, Features and Classification Techniques for Speech Emotion Recognition

Emotion recognition is a rapidly growing research field. Emotions can be effectively expressed through speech and can provide insight about speaker’s intentions. Although, humans can easily interpret emotions through speech, physical gestures, and eye movement but to train a machine to do the same with similar preciseness is quite a challenging task. SER systems can improve human-machine interaction when used with automatic speech recognition, as emotions have the tendency to change the semantics of a sentence. Many researchers have contributed their extremely impressive work in this research area, leading to development of numerous classification, feature selection, feature extraction and emotional speech databases. This paper reviews recent accomplishments in the area of speech emotion recognition. It also present a detailed review of various types of emotional speech databases, and different classification techniques which can be used individually or in combination and a brief description of various speech features for emotion recognition.