Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 9.5
The ReacTable (Jordà et al.
2005
): a tangible interface for live music, presented here as a
programming language environment
screenshot of
Tex t
, a visual language inspired by the ReacTable and based upon the
pure functional Haskell programming language. In Text, functions and values may
be placed freely on the page, and those with compatible types are automatically con-
nected together, closest first. Functions are
curried
, allowing terse composition of
higher order functions. Text could in theory be used for general programming, but
is designed for improvising live music, using an underlying musical pattern library
(McLean and Wiggins
2010b
). A rather different approach to spatial syntax is taken
by
Nodal
, where distance between symbols represents elapsed time during interpre-
tation (McCormack and McIlwain
2011
). The result is a control flow graph where
time relationships in musical structure can be easily seen and manipulated as spatial
relationships.
2
In all of these examples, the graphs may be changed while they are
executed, allowing interactive composition and indeed live improvisation of the like
examined in Sect.
9.6
.
An important assertion within CMT is that a conceptual system of seman-
tic meaning exists within an individual, and not as direct reference to the world.
Through language, metaphors become established in a culture and shared by its
participants, but this is an effect of individual conceptual systems interacting, and
not individuals inferring and adopting external truths of the world (or of possi-
ble worlds). This would account for the varied range of programming metaphors
discussed in Sect.
9.3
, as well as the general failure of attempts at designing
fixed metaphors into computer interfaces (Blackwell
2006c
). Each programmer has
a different set of worldly interests and experiences, and so establishes different
2
This space/time syntax can also be seen in Al-Jazari mentioned earlier and shown in Fig.
9.2
.
