The Squeezables: Toward an Expressive and Interdependent Multi-player Musical Instrument

The Squeezables is a computer music instrument that allows a group of players to perform and improvise musical compositions by using a set of squeezing and pulling gestures. The instrument, comprised of six squeezable and retractable gel balls mounted on a small podium, addresses a number of hardware and software challenges in electronic music interface design. It is designed to provide an alternative to asynchronous and discursive interactions with discrete musical controllers by allowing multiple channels of high-level simultaneous input. The instrument also addresses new challenges in interconnected group playing by providing an infrastructure for the development of interdependent, yet coherent, multi-player interactions. As a test case for a particular highlevel control and interdependent mapping scheme, a short musical composition was written for the instrument and was performed by three players. This article presents a critical evaluation of the composition, the performance, and the mapping design, which leads toward a number of suggestions for improvements and future research.