In this section
@article{McPherson:2025,
author = {McPherson, A and Morrison, L and Davison, M and Wanderley, M},
journal = {Journal of New Music Research},
title = {On mapping as a technoscientific practice in digital musical instruments},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This article provides historical context for the emergence of “mapping” as a keyconceptual metaphor in the context of digital musical instrument (DMI) design anduse. In addition to a consideration of different technical implementations, we offer a critical assessment of the tendency to over-generalise mapping as a universalmodel for both building instruments and analysing them in retrospect. This reification of mapping as a design model, as well as of the dimension spaces of soundand gesture being mapped, is read through a media-theoretical lens, drawing onrecent work from interface studies to show how mapping actively constructs ideological relationships between performers and underlying systems of musical representation. While acknowledging the practical utility of traditional formulations ofmapping in DMIs, we focus on issues arising from their over-generalisation, includingthe sometimes-misleading impression of representational stability, the suitability ofspatial metaphors, and the assumption of unidirectionality and temporal stasis. Inclosing, the article explores alternatives based on a relational approach to mappingas an “intra-active” process that is bidirectional at every step, fluid in its distinctionof categories, and more dynamic across its variegated temporalities.
AU - McPherson,A
AU - Morrison,L
AU - Davison,M
AU - Wanderley,M
PY - 2025///
SN - 0929-8215
TI - On mapping as a technoscientific practice in digital musical instruments
T2 - Journal of New Music Research
ER -
Dyson School of Design Engineering
Imperial College London
25 Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London
SW7 2DB
design.engineering@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7594 8888