Musical agency and an ecological perspective of DMIs: collective embodiment in third wave HCI

Understanding how to take into account the breadth of considerations required by third-wave HCI remains a challenge when designing technologies. This requires an understanding of what embodiment means, and in particular, a collective notion of embodiment. Within the field of digital musical instrument (DMI) design, the need for a DMI to support musical agency has been recognised along with a view of the inter-relationship between musician, instrument, context and audience as an ecology has been developed. These considerations are consonant with an understanding of embodiment within this field. In this paper we describe a project in which a digital musical instrument was designed and developed adopting an approach informed by participatory design where musicians became integral to the design process. Through this process a practical understanding of the nature of musical agency and this ecology was developed. This understanding provides insights into the nature of embodiment and meaning making within a creative and performative practice, and is informative to the wider field of HCI as it seeks to understand considerations of embodiment.