Online map interface for creative and interactive music-making

Abstract

In this paper, the musical potential of COMPath an online map based music making tool as a novel and unique interface for interactive music composition and performance is discussed. COMPath provides an intuitive environment for creative music making by sonification of geo-referenced data. Users can generate musical events with simple and familiar actions on an online map interface; a set of local information is collected along the user-drawn route and then interpreted as sounds of various musical instruments. I dicuss the musical interpretation of routes on a map, review the design and implementation of COMPath, and present selected sonification results with focus on mapping strategies for map-based composition.