Mediated Interactions and Musical Expression—A Survey

The dawn of the information and electronics age has had a significant impact on music. Digital music creation has become a popular alternative to playing classical instruments, and in its various forms has taken a place as full-fledged class of instrument in its own right. Research into technological or digital instruments for musical expression is a fascinating field which, among other things, tries to facilitate musicians and to improve the art of musical expression. Such instruments broaden the available forms of musical expression and provide new modes for expression, described by some as a reinvention of the musician's proprioceptive perception (Benthien 2002; Kerckhove 1993). They can make musical expression and musical collaboration more accessible to non-musicians and/or serve as educational tools. Technology can also eliminate the boundaries of space and time in musical collaboration or performance, or enhance it, by providing new channels of interaction between performers or between performer and audience. Furthermore, technology in itself can be a collaborating partner in the form of a creative agent, co-authoring, helping or teaching its user. Finally, Beilharz brings forward the human desire for post-humanism and cyborgism in musical expression as a goal in itself to explore mediating technologies (Beilharz 2011). In this chapter we will survey music technology through various lenses, exploring the qualities of technological instruments as tools, media and agents and investigating the micro-coordination processes that occur in musical collaboration, with the long range goal of creating better technological artifacts for music expression.