[ISEA2015] Paper: Timothy J. Barraclough, Dale Carnegie & Ajay Kapur – Pyxis Minor: App Design for Novel Social Music Experiences

Abstract (Short paper)

Keywords: Sound synthesis, instrument design, app design, social music experiences, digital signal processing, user interfacing, game design.

Pyxis Minor is a social musical application built for iOS and Mac OS devices. It is intended to be of use for people of varying musical backgrounds and knowledge levels by providing a low barrier to entry for the creation of electronic music and by emphasizing the playful nature of music making. Pyxis Minor achieves disruption of existing electronic music performance and creation paradigms in order to posit a democratization of electronic music processes. This paper outlines the user interfacing principles and the design architecture which includes the repurposing of a game engine in order to create a unique social music experience.

  • Timothy J. Barraclough is an electronic musician and music technologist currently pursuing a Masters in Engineering at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Sociology and Sonic Arts composition at the Victoria University of Wellington in 2012 and his Post-Graduate Diploma in Sonic Arts Composition in 2013. His work is focused primarily around creating new ways to consume and interact with artistic works through the use of both existing and emergent technology and the ways that technology can transform, inform and create social experiences.
  • Dale A. Carnegie has a BSc in Theoretical Physics and Applied Mathematics, an MSc with first class honours in Applied Physics and Electronics and a PhD in Computer Science. He is currently the Professor of Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) where he is also Head of the School of Engineering and Computer Science. He heads Victoria University’s Mechatronics Group which specialises in Autonomous Mobile Robotics.
  • Ajay Kapur is currently the director of Music Technology at California Institute of the Arts, USA. He received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in 2007 from University of Victoria (NZ) with a focus on intelligent music systems and media technology. Kapur graduated with a BS in Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University (USA) in 2002. A musician at heart, trained on drumset, tabla, sitar and other percussion instruments from around the world, Ajay strives to push the technological barrier in order to explore new sounds, rhythms and melodies.

Full text (PDF) p. 468-471