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Sketching Sonic Interaction Design

SID Workshop at HIT, Holon Institute of Technology

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November 16th, 2009

(followed by SID Management Committee Meeting on November 17th, 2009)

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Introduction

Sonic Interaction Design (SID) is the discipline that investigates the use of sound in interactive experiences. As technologies become more miniaturized and embedded, and their users more mobile, interactive sound becomes increasingly important. The experiences offered by sonic interactions need to be effectively and beautifully designed.

Sketching is a fundamental part of the design process. Designers sketch ideas for objects, spaces, interactions, experiences. Bill Buxton's recent book, “Sketching User Experiences”, has laid out a palette of methods for sketching interactive experiences, that involve different forms of “visual storytelling”.

But how do we sketch when designing sonic interactions? This is the question at the core of this workshop. What is the equivalent for paper and pen when we come to design interactions that use sound as a main output?

A central topic in this workshop will be the use of the voice – vocal sketching – as one means of sketching sonic interactions. Can the voice for sound designers play a similar role as that played by the hand for the graphic designer? how can, and how do, people use their voice in the initial stages of designing sonic interactions?

Workshop Structure

The workshop will be composed of experiential sessions (voice warm-up session, a vocal sketching session in groups), invited talks (on the topics of sketching, interaction techniques tailored for the human voice), and a poster and demo session (with a special interest in interactive experiences that employ the voice).

The workshop will end with a discussion focused on Vocal Sketching as a tool for SID.

Workshop Invited Speakers

Jordi Janer - 2009: UPF. Processament del Senyal I: Àudio Grup1 Grup2 (access to Moodle).
I work as a post-doctoral researcher at the Music Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona. Currently involved in various research and technology transfer projects. Graduated in Electronic Engineering at Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona (2000), internship in at the Institut for Music and Acoustics of the ZKM (Center for Art and Media Technologies) in Karlsruhe, Germany. From 2000 to 2003, worked as DSP engineer at Creamware Datentechnik, GmbH., Siegburg, Germany, designing and developing audio effects and virtual synthesizers. In 2005 did a research stay at the McGill University, Montréal, Canada as part of the PhD studies.

Itai Talgam - Conductor Itay Talgam is one of the leading figures in the Israeli music scene. Talgam is a champion of contemporary music, and in particular music of contemporary Israeli composers. His outstanding achievements were acknowledged by audiences, critics, as well as by Israel’s composers Association, which in 1994 awarded him an honorary prize for his personal contribution in performing and promoting Israeli music.

Dr. Noam Amir is a lecturer (assistant professor) at the department of Communication Disorders in Tel-Aviv University. He received his D.Sc, M.Sc. and B.Sc. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel, in the field of Electrical Engineering. He spent 2 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire d'Acoustique de l'Universite du Maine, in Le Mans, France. His research has always been interdisciplinary in nature, on the frontier between acoustics, speech and signal processing. Currently his research interests are the manifestation of emotions and depression in speech, accumulation and analysis of spontaneous speech corpora, various aspects of wave propagation in electromagnetic and acoustic waveguides, and the acoustics of musical instruments.

Dr. Loic Kessous is a post-doctoral researcher at  the department of Communication Disorders in Tel-Aviv University. He received his D.Sc (in the field of music technology) from Paris 8 university, M.Sc. (in acoustics) and B.Sc. (in Physics) from from Aix-Marseille University - France. His current focus on speech prosody analysis related to emotion. Its Other fields of interest are input devices for computer-based expression of emotion, in particular related to art expression, gesture recognition and speech and singing voice synthesis.

Luka Or – Teacher at HOLON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.Extarnal design consultant at Keshet Broadcasting.Luka's Site

Inger Ekman - Currently working at the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research at Helsinki School of Economics. My research focuses on non-visual interface development. I am currently investigating ways to employ psychophysiological measurements to evaluate user interfaces, multimodal interaction and the user experience.

TRAVEL INFORMATION

Local information

Weather:

Weather in November is usually, 22 sunny days. temp range 15-26. More info:

http://weather.uk.msn.com/tenday.aspx?wealocations=wc:ISXX0026

Tourist  info:

No visa is needed,
bring an invitation letter to display when entering Israel. Here are some extra details and FAQ

http://www.israele-turismo.it/Tourism_Euk/Tourist+Information/Frequently+Asked+Questions.htm

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a global city, Israel's economic hub and the richest city in the country, home to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and many corporate offices and research and development centers.Its beaches, bars, cafés, restaurants, upscale shopping, great weather and cosmopolitan lifestyle have led to it being a popular tourist destination, and given way to its reputation as a "Mediterranean metropolis that never sleeps". more info

Travel in Tel Aviv: http://wikitravel.org/en/Tel_Aviv

http://www.telavivguide.net/

 

Venue information

Holon is 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, easily accessible by taxi / bus.

The convention is held at HIT. The school was established in 1975. During it's 28 years of existence, it has been known in Israel and abroad as a leading school for the different fields of design and Technology.

Hotels

Tel Aviv is full of great hotels, we will soon post recomendations.
Upon making a reservation request the special SID price.

Call for posters and demos

Call for posters and demos

We invite submissions of demos and posters dealing with sketching in Sonic Interaction Design.

Of particular interest are:

• Sketching techniques for SID – theory and experiences from the field

• Interaction techniques that are tailored to make use of our vocal capabilities

• Interactive experiences that involve the voice (in non-speech contexts)

• Tools and techniques for extracting useful information from vocal sketches

Important dates

Posters and demos deadline: September 7th

Notifications of acceptance: September 15th

Submit your posters and demos to sketchingsid@cost-sid.org

Questions?

sketchingsid@cost-sid.org

Workshop Programme

when	what	who
09:30:00	Welcome	Davide Rochesso, Michal
09:45:00	invited speaker 1	Jordi Janer
10:15:00	invited speaker 2	Itai Talgam
10:45:00	coffee break
11:00:00	Using the Voice (warmup)
11:30:00	Sketching Sonic Interactions	Hosting: Inger Ekman & Michal
12:45:00	Sketching wrapup
13:00:00	lunch
14:00:00	Invited speaker - Visual Vs. Vocal Sketching	Luka Or
14:30:00	poster and demo session	Thomas Herman
14:45:00		Patrik Susini
15:00:00		Cumhur Ekrut
15:30:00	coffee break
16:00:00	Extracting data from Sonic Sketches	Loic Kessous, Noam Amir
16:30:00	invited speaker 3
17:00:00	discussion
18:00:00