Sculpton, a malleable tangible object for musical expression

This paper presents the actual stage of implementation of a new type of malleable tangible object for musical expression. Sculpton is an autonomous sonic object which uses the metaphor of sound sculpting for connecting physical information in digital audio. By manipulating the object the user can literally sculpt the sound through a real-time sound synthesis which reverberates the object structure. This project explores a novel approach compared to previous work and research around the topic of sound sculpting: user gestures is not externally sensed but within the artifact itself. Sculpton is an attempt for the development of a new kind of embodied musical instruments which combine multidimensional control, tangible and malleable characteristics with an organic handling. We will briefly describe the research, our framework and the actual state of the experimental prototypes.