Courtney N. Reed

Interactive technology design is situated within environmental and sociocultural context. This pictorial develops an In-Situ Seeding method for engaging with site-specific sensory experiences. This method stems from a previous TEI Studio, where we utilized Sensory Portfolios, digital sensors, and other materials to make sense of interaction in place. We present an annotated collection of our Studio experiences and autobiographical retrospective reflections. These Seeds supported in-situ sensory explorations and examination of entanglements between documentation, data, location, history, and human and more-than-human agents. We contribute to literature around (1) walk-and-talk sensory explorations, (2) situated entanglements with technological artifacts, and (3) relationships between human and non-human agents in shared locations and over varied timescales. Our reflections point towards continued development for In-Situ Seeding as a method and suggest its further use and guidance to support future sensory explorers.

Timbre, pitch, and timing are often relevant in digital musical instrument (DMI) design. Compared with the latter two, timbre is neither easy to define nor discretise when negotiating audio representations and gesture-sound mappings. We conduct a corpus assisted discourse analysis of "timbre" in all NIME proceedings to date (2001-2024). Combining this with a detailed review of 18 timbre-focused papers at NIME, we examine how definitions of timbre and timbre interaction methods are constructed through, for instance, Wessel’s numerical timbre control space, synthesis tools and programming languages, machine learning and AI approaches, and other trends in digital lutherie practices. While acknowledging the practical utility of technical constructions of timbre in NIME (and other digital music research communities), we contribute discussion on the entanglement of technology and aesthetics in instrument design, which constitutes what "timbre" becomes in NIME research and reflect on the tension between technoscientific and constructivist understandings of timbre: how DMIs and musical practices have been reconstituted around particular timbral values operationalised in NIME. In response, we propose ways that the NIME community can embrace more critical approaches and awareness to how our methods and tools shape and co-create our notions of timbre, as well as other musical concepts, connecting more openly with diverse types of sonic phenomena.

The interdisciplinary field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) thrives on productive engagement with different domains, yet this engagement often breaks due to idiosyncratic writing styles and unfamiliar concepts. Inspired by the dialogic model of abstract metaphors, as well as the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) to produce on-demand support, we investigate the use of metaphors to facilitate engagement between Science and Technology Studies (STS) and System HCI. Our reflective-style survey with early-career HCI researchers (N=48) reported that limited prior exposure to STS research can hinder perceived openness of the work, and ultimately interest in reading. The survey also revealed that metaphors enhance likelihood to continue reading STS papers, and alternative perspectives can build critical thinking skills to mitigate potential risks of LLM-generated metaphors. We lastly offer a specified model of metaphor exchange (within this generative context) that incorporates alternative perspectives to construct shared understanding in interdisciplinary engagement.