Using music as a communication medium

Abstract

Music is a rich communication medium, and there are some similarities between the job of a music composer and that of an HCI designer (although their objectives may be different). Whilst sound has been used in interfaces, its use has mainly been at a primitive level, often involving real-world sound. Since music offers a highly structured set of mechanisms for communicating, it is surprising that there have been so few attempts at exploring its possibilities. Our current activity involves investigations into the use of music in algorithmic audiolisation and program debugging.