The Human Skin as an Interface for Musical Expression

This paper discusses the utilization of human skin as a tangible interface for musical expression and collaborative performance. We present an overview of existing different instrument designs that include the skin as the main input. As a further development of a previous exploration [16] we outline the setup and interaction methods of ‘Skintimacy’, an instrument that appropriates the skin for low voltage power transmission in multi-player interaction. Observations deriving from proof-ofconcept exploration and performances using the instrument are brought into the reflection and discussion concerning the capabilities and limitations of skin as an input surface.