Our journal article “Exploring Gestural Affordances in Audio Latent Space Navigation” has just been published in Frontiers in Computer Science as part of the []“Embodied Perspectives on Sound and Music AI”](https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/64735/embodied-perspectives-on-sound-and-music-ai) research topic. The journal article is led by PhD student Shuoyang Zheng and is co-authored with Dr Anna Xambó Sedó and Prof Nick Bryan-Kinns.
The paper focuses on investigating how musicians discover and develop performance techniques in the latent spaces of AI audio models - using a tablet-based digital musical instrument as a research probe.
Zheng, S. J., Xambó Sedó, A., & Bryan-Kinns, N. (2025). Exploring gestural affordances in audio latent space navigation. Frontiers in Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2025.1575202. Supplementary documentation
Abstract: The latent space of generative AI models affords unique creative possibilities and broad design space for AI-enhanced digital music instruments. While interface designs for latent space navigation typically rely on sound-producing gestures that involve bodily motions and movements, the underlying subjective perception of these gestures remains underexplored. To understand how musicians perceive sound-producing gestures and tailor performance techniques in audio latent space, we present a user study workshop with an AI-enhanced digital music instrument with a tablet interface. Eighteen musicians were recruited to test out open-ended gestures and tasked to create musical scores. We report how they use sound-producing gestures in the latent space and develop performance techniques. We contribute findings from an embodied music cognition perspective of how subjective perception of gestures shapes musicians’ technique development in audio latent space navigation. We discuss the implications of new gestural affordances discovered by participants in our workshop, aiming to elucidate new opportunities for digital musical instruments with audio latent space navigation.