MicroJam: An App for Sharing Tiny Touch-Screen Performances

Charles Martin, and Jim Torresen

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

MicroJam is a mobile app for sharing tiny touch-screen performances. Mobile applications that streamline creativity and social interaction have enabled a very broad audience to develop their own creative practices. While these apps have been very successful in visual arts (particularly photography), the idea of social music-making has not had such a broad impact. MicroJam includes several novel performance concepts intended to engage the casual music maker and inspired by current trends in social creativity support tools. Touch-screen performances are limited to five seconds, instrument settings are posed as sonic ``filters'', and past performances are arranged as a timeline with replies and layers. These features of MicroJam encourage users not only to perform music more frequently, but to engage with others in impromptu ensemble music making.

Citation

Charles Martin, and Jim Torresen. 2017. MicroJam: An App for Sharing Tiny Touch-Screen Performances. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176334

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{cmartin2017,
 abstract = {MicroJam is a mobile app for sharing tiny touch-screen performances. Mobile applications that streamline creativity and social interaction have enabled a very broad audience to develop their own creative practices. While these apps have been very successful in visual arts (particularly photography), the idea of social music-making has not had such a broad impact. MicroJam includes several novel performance concepts intended to engage the casual music maker and inspired by current trends in social creativity support tools. Touch-screen performances are limited to five seconds, instrument settings are posed as sonic ``filters'', and past performances are arranged as a timeline with replies and layers. These features of MicroJam encourage users not only to perform music more frequently, but to engage with others in impromptu ensemble music making.},
 address = {Copenhagen, Denmark},
 author = {Charles Martin and Jim Torresen},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176334},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 pages = {495--496},
 publisher = {Aalborg University Copenhagen},
 title = {MicroJam: An App for Sharing Tiny Touch-Screen Performances},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2017/nime2017_paper0096.pdf},
 year = {2017}
}