Material Matters: Exploring Materiality in Digital Musical Instruments Design

Research on the design of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) has highlighted the importance of musical gestures and embodied interaction in DMI design. However, this research often focuses on technical and sonic factors of design, with less attention on how materials influence the design process and DMI design idea generation. Thus, this paper explores materiality in DMIs design through a material probe approach with deformable materials. This paper reports on a study with fifteen DMI designers investigating the evoked meaning of material properties in a musical context beyond their digital interactivity. Results suggest that material properties inspired participants’ design thinking, and there was a strong connection between tactility and imagined sound production. We also reported the patterns of gestural interaction of deformable materials in DMIs. We reflect on these results to report lessons learned that could inform interactive systems’ material design within and beyond the musical domain.