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Panel 5: OHMI – The One-Handed Musical Instrument Project

16:00 Horst Hörtner (Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT): Introduction
16:10 Stephen Hetherington (Founder of the OHMI Project / UK)
16:30 Joe Paradiso (Director of the Responsive Environments, MIT MediaLab / US)
16:50 Peter Purkathofer (Associate Professor Vienna University of Technology / AT)
17:10 Nick Wilsdon (UK/Assistive Music Technology specialist at Drake Music; Sound Designer; Media Artist & Musician)
17:30 Roundup and Discussion – Moderation: Horst Hörtner (Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab / AT)

There is presently no orchestral musical instrument that can be played with one hand. As a result millions of people across the world with impairment in one hand or arm are excluded from music making. We want to invent new instruments to open full and undifferentiated participation in musical life; whether at school, in the home, or in a professional ensemble. The technical difficulties of this challenge are considerable. It is now fairly straightforward to synthesize the sounds of orchestral instruments electronically, but this is a far cry from the subtlety and complexity of performance on a realorchestral wind or string instrument. The OHMI Project is trying to create musical equivalence, compatibility and the possibility of participation. Our success will have a profound impact not just on individuals, but also on society‘s relationship with disability, opening new realms of achievement and possibility.

The Ars Electronica OHMI Competition

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKHct8tscW8
Stephen Hetherington introduces OHMI

The OHMI-Trust was formed by Stephen Hetherington and Martin Dyke in 2011 in response to Stephen’s attempts to find a musical instrument his hemiplegic daughter could play at school. Panel 5 on the One-Handed Musical Instrument Project in conjunction with Pixelspaces 2011 will officially launch the Ars Electronica OHMI Competition. The competition will then commence and the entry rules will be formally published. It is expected that each round of the competition will last two years. At the end of the first year
the best concepts and prototypes will be awarded funds to assist further development.

Actual performances will then be given on the new instruments at the end of the second year. It is planned that the winning instrument will get a special Prix Ars Electronica award and will perform as part of the Ars Electronica Festival before playing again with the City of Birmingham Orchestra in the UK.

Pixelspaces Day 2: Art Meets Science / Art Makes Science

The time has come to set up new shared spaces that enable science and art to come out and “play.” Spaces in which each can observe the way the other works, in which each can learn from the other, and can do some collaborative tinkering on innovations for the society of the future. In addition to this paradigm of interdisciplinarity, Day 2 of the Pixelspaces Symposium will deal with another current trend: the expansion of the concept of research in the direction of gaining artistic insights. Artists are increasingly emancipating themselves and assuming the role of independent researcher. The increasing attention this is garnering will be illustrated during the panel with reference to new subsidy programs and artistic research projects. Which all goes to show that: Art Makes Science.