When discussing the mind we also need to discuss our body. Interactions are not only processed in our minds but always use our body as the vehicle. In this article I refer to a paper that discusses the body and its cultural conjunction as well as and interesting gesture controller design that shows a designed outcome of of a philosophical point of view.
Sara Sithi-Amnuai has developed a custom built MIDI glove interface called NAMI that is designed for live electro-acoustic musical performances. It is a tool that extends her own multicultural background. Nami utilizes a force-sensitive-resistor, flex sensors, buttons, hall effect sensors, and a photoresistor. The purpose is to allow the user to use their own gestural vocabulary while being culture general and flexible valuing cross-cultural exploration and accommodating a variety of cultural gestural language.
In Sithi-Amnuais paper “Exploring Identity Through Design: A focus on the cultural body via Nami” she discusses the cultural body, its consideration in existing gestural controller design, and how cultural methods have the potential to extend musical/social identities and/or traditions within a technological context. She starts off by describing the metaphysics of agency, identity, and culture. The identity of a human-being is deeply linked to culture and sustained through creation and performance of music and dance. The agency describes an “… active entity constantly intervening in the course of events ongoing around [them]”. Our mind is inseparable from our body, while the body being the physical material through which we have access to the world. Sithi-Amnuai refers to a study by Steven Wainwright and Bryan Turner that shows that the identity of former dancers in Royal Ballet in London is deeply rooted in their own body. Once their career has ended, it is exceedingly challenging to reinvent themselves outside the company.
Sithi-Amnuais take on gestural controllers is very philosophical. Once again, I thought how important it is to have philosophical and meaningful foundation for the execution of a design. But also, the gadget itself is very interesting and makes up for an inspiring controller that enables users to put more of themselves into the music. She sparked my curiosity to explore and extend my own cultural body. In that regard, cultural etiquettes, movements, and experiences through sense, sight, and feel are affecting our instruments and tools as well.
Reference:
https://zenodo.org/record/4813188#.YOAqVS335QI
