Fluid Sound Interfaces explore new interactions to generate sound. In this specific project, we examine how screen printing can be used as a low-cost and versatile method to help with sound sculpting through designing malleable, reproducible musical instruments.

The HCI community has seen an evolution of printing mechanisms beyond producing static visual components to create interactive artifacts such as paper circuits, printable touch sensors, and printed thin-film displays.

We focus on screen printing as a DIY fabrication process that uniquely complements existing processes for creating low-cost and easily replicable interactive systems. As part of this process, low-cost conductive screen printing inks are applied to a range of substrate materials and combined with an Arduino-based circuit and music processing software to support new interactions and performance scenarios in the domain of music making.

What is more, research into haptic and tangible musical interfaces has explored methods for transducing gestural information into the sonic realm through force feedback controllers, as well as malleable interfaces. These approaches imagine interaction with physical materials as a means to ‘sculpt’ digital sound. Furthermore, we propose that the very nature of the substrate materials—which could be folded, bent, stretched, or even cut or torn during performance—offer a rich set of affordances for manipulating sonic material.

Our research themes will be situated at the intersection of various interdisciplinary research fields involving design, human-computer interaction, and tangible media. Beyond the above-mentioned application in music and sound, we are also thinking about the wider application of screen printing with different material and sensor techniques for more user groups.