Body Lutherie: Co-Designing a Wearable for Vocal Performance with a Changing Body

Rachel Freire, and Courtney N. Reed

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Research at NIME has incorporated embodied perspectives from design and HCI communities to explore how instruments and performers shape each other in interaction. Material perspectives also reveal other more-than-human factors' influence on musical interaction. We propose an additional, currently unaddressed perspective in instrument design: the influence of the body not only the locus of experience, but as a physical, entangled aspect in the more-than-human musicking. Proposing a practice of "Body Lutherie," we explore how digital instrument designers can honour and work with living, dynamic bodies. Our design of a breath-based vocal wearable instrument incorporated uncontrollable aspects of a vocalist's body and its physical change over different timescales. We distinguish the body in the design process and acknowledge its agency in vocal instrument design. Reflection on our co-design process between vocal pedagogy and eTextile fashion perspectives demonstrates how Body Lutherie can generate empathy and understanding of the body as a collaborator in future instrument design and artistic practice.

Citation:

Rachel Freire, and Courtney N. Reed. 2024. Body Lutherie: Co-Designing a Wearable for Vocal Performance with a Changing Body. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13904800

BibTeX Entry:

  @article{nime2024_18,
 abstract = {Research at NIME has incorporated embodied perspectives from design and HCI communities to explore how instruments and performers shape each other in interaction. Material perspectives also reveal other more-than-human factors' influence on musical interaction. We propose an additional, currently unaddressed perspective in instrument design: the influence of the body not only the locus of experience, but as a physical, entangled aspect in the more-than-human musicking. Proposing a practice of "Body Lutherie," we explore how digital instrument designers can honour and work with living, dynamic bodies. Our design of a breath-based vocal wearable instrument incorporated uncontrollable aspects of a vocalist's body and its physical change over different timescales. We distinguish the body in the design process and acknowledge its agency in vocal instrument design. Reflection on our co-design process between vocal pedagogy and eTextile fashion perspectives demonstrates how Body Lutherie can generate empathy and understanding of the body as a collaborator in future instrument design and artistic practice.},
 address = {Utrecht, Netherlands},
 articleno = {18},
 author = {Rachel Freire and Courtney N. Reed},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.13904800},
 editor = {S M Astrid Bin and Courtney N. Reed},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {September},
 numpages = {10},
 pages = {117--126},
 presentation-video = {},
 title = {Body Lutherie: Co-Designing a Wearable for Vocal Performance with a Changing Body},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2024/nime2024_18.pdf},
 year = {2024}
}