Expressing the Inexpressible: an investigation of music visualization preferences

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2009-03-17
Language
en
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Abstract
This paper presents an empirical investigation of the ways people tend to map changes in several musical parameters to the visual parameters that control a realtime visual feedback system. By investigating visualization preferences for three musical dimensions (tempo, timing and intensity), realtime visual feedback can be made more intuitive and possibly more effective by exploiting a priori associations between parameters in the musical and the visual domain. A 3D graphics engine controllable in 8 dimensions was developed, an a web experiment in which 384 subjects participated was conducted to discover systematic music visualization preferences. Results indicate strong systematic associations between musical tempo and visual speed, musical intensity and visual size and brightness, and musical tempo and color. No systematic effects were found for the musical timing dimension. Although music visualization preferences are shown to exist, the effect of these associations between the musical and the visual domain on the effectivity of learning musical expression through realtime visual feedback remain yet to be investigated.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen