Contribution
On the Problem of the Bifurcation of Nature in Digital Musical Instrument Design and the Possibility of Minimising the Problem by Using Process-Ontology
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The development of digital musical instruments is often pursued from a substance-ontological functional and physical perspective. However, many musicians talk less about music from a functional and physical perspective but more about the experienced phenomena they encounter when making music. In this article, instrumental playing and musical interaction will be considered from two perspectives: the broadly used substance-ontological view and the process-ontological approach as drafted by Alfred North Whitehead. The instrumental focus here is on digital and traditional bowed stringed instruments and varying descriptions of the interaction on the instrument. Related works and these descriptions are looked at from the two perspectives mentioned. It is shown why it often comes to a bifurcation of nature into primary and secondary qualities of musical interaction during the interface design process. Furthermore, it is shown that musicians' requirements for digital musical instruments are sometimes unfavourably excluded. These problems will be exemplified and suggestions for a process-ontological perspective on the design of musical interaction will be presented. Also an example of a highly market relevant design principle of a musical sound synthesis system fitting to the process-ontological understanding of musical interaction is presented and discussed.