Augmenting musical instruments with digital identities

Abstract

We explore how augmenting musical instruments with digital identities can enhance their provenance, utility during creative practice, and personal meaning. A literature review reveals the importance of object identities in general and instrument identities in particular, how the identities of things can be digitally augmented, but also that this idea has not been widely applied to musical instruments. A first case study draws on interviews to illuminate the current practice of physically relicing guitars to enhance their identities. A second case study of augmenting a guitar to capture and retell its life story illuminates potential digital identity practices. Reflecting on both case studies, we reconsider musical instruments as product-service systems in which physical instruments come bundled with digital services that forge, perform, and share their identities.