Designing Sound for Recreation and Well-Being

In this paper we explore how we compose sound for an interactive tangible and mobile interface, where the goal is to improve health and well-being for families with children with disabilities. We describe the composition process of how we decompose a linear beat-based and vocal sound material and recompose it with real-time audio synthesis and composition rules into interactive Scenes. Scenes that make it possible for the users to select, explore and recreate different sound worlds. In order to recreate, the users interact with the tangible interface in different ways, as instrument, play with it as a friend, improvise and create music and relax with it as ambient sounding furniture. We discuss composition techniques for mixing sound, tangible-physical and lighting elements in the Scenes. Based on observations we explore how a diverse audience in the family and at school can recreate and improvise their own sound experience and play together in open and non-therapeutic everyday situations. We conclude by discussing the possible impact of our findings for the NIME-community; how the techniques of decomposing, recomposing and recreating sound, based on a relational perspective, could contribute to the design of new instruments for musical expression.