THE DESIGN OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR GREY PARROTS: AN ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ANIMAL-HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION Reinhard Gupfinger Institute of Media Studies University of Art and Design Linz This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Kaltenbrunner January 2020 Dedicated to the memory of Coco i ii ABSTRACT This dissertation was carried out within the framework of an artistic research and art project called metamusic and documents the process of designing musical instruments for grey parrots in captivity. This cumulative work discusses the different steps towards an animal-centered design for auditory enrichment in the context of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) and related fields on the basis of four peer-reviewed publications. It begins with a presentation of a wide range of artistic and scientific projects involving animals in musical settings. I analyzed and classified these projects focusing on the interplay between animals and music technology in order to arrive at a better understanding of these animal-based musical projects and the musical agency of the animals involved. This is followed by a description of a series of sonic experiments with my research subjects: a group of African grey parrots living in a parrot shelter near Vienna. These investigations were intended to gain information about how this specific group of grey parrots perceive and respond to sound stimuli. I then used the results of these experiments to determine the interaction and sonic preferences of the parrots, which in turn informed the subsequent design process. Building on this, the thesis describes the animal-centered design process for creating musical instruments and interfaces that provide auditory enrichment for grey parrots living in captivity and discusses how the implementation of such technological mediators could foster new auditory and interaction opportunities for improving the quality of life of grey parrots living in captivity. This dissertation closes by exploring the implications of the research and artistic output of metamusic for both the animal and human participants in experiments, the design process as well as artistic installations and performances. The findings also suggest further research opportunities concerning the auditory enrichment of captive grey parrots. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This PhD project was made possible by the support of the Austrian Science Fund FWF through the program for Arts-based Research (PEEK AR 349-G24). I would like to thank our partners Martin Breindl, Andrea Sodomka and Norbert Math from alien productions, and Nobert Schweizer, Irene Pepperberg and Susanna Niedermayer. Special thanks goes to Nadja Ziegler, Julia Bellmann as well as the animal keepers of ARGE Papageienschutz for their zoological expertise and above all for entrusting their fosterlings to me. I acknowledge the theoretical and technical support from my supervisor Martin Kaltenbrunner and co-advisor Daniel Gilfillan. A special thanks to Martin who has gone beyond the role of a supervisor by supporting me during the long process of developing this PhD project. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my friends and colleagues from the Tangible Music Lab at the University of Art and Design Linz, Echo Ho, Enrique Tomás, Jens Vetter and Sabina Ahn. I am also grateful to Clara Manchini, Fiona French and Luisa Ruge from the ACI community, for being open to my artistic approach and for their inspiration and feedback. I also acknowledge proofreading support from Mark Miscovich. Thank you, Mark for proofreading this dissertation and the papers. Finally, I want thank Family Durstberger, Lara Kastler and especially Tina Durstberger for their tremendous support in all aspects of life. v 6 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 11 1.1 METAMUSIC ............................................................................................................ 16 1.1.1 Initial project: metamusic .............................................................................. 16 1.1.2 metamusic: Metamorphosis of a term ............................................................ 18 1.1.3 Chronology of the initial project (2012 – 2015) ............................................ 21 1.1.4 metamusic PEEK project ............................................................................... 23 1.1.5 Chronology of the PEEK project (2016 – 2019) ............................................ 29 1.2 RESEARCH FIELDS .................................................................................................. 31 1.2.1 Animal-Computer Interaction ........................................................................ 31 1.2.2 Human-Computer Interaction ........................................................................ 35 1.2.3 NIME .............................................................................................................. 37 1.2.4 Zoological fields ............................................................................................. 38 1.2.5 Artistic research ............................................................................................. 40 1.3 GREY PARROTS ....................................................................................................... 42 1.3.1 Grey parrots in history ................................................................................... 43 1.3.2 Cognitive and communicative abilities of grey parrots ................................. 46 1.3.3 Problems in captivity ..................................................................................... 47 1.3.4 Enrichment for parrots ................................................................................... 48 1.3.5 Grey parrots in art and culture ...................................................................... 49 1.3.6 Musicality and grey parrots ........................................................................... 56 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................ 59 1.5 RESEARCH METHODS .............................................................................................. 60 2 ANIMALS MAKE MUSIC: A LOOK AT NON-HUMAN MUSICAL EXPRESSION ............................................................................................................... 63 2.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 65 2.2 CULTURAL CONTEXT .............................................................................................. 66 7 2.3 MUSICAL ANIMAL–MACHINE INTERACTION ............................................................ 69 2.3.1 Animal movement as control source .............................................................. 70 2.3.2 Animals as unconscious performers .............................................................. 72 2.3.3 Animals as trained performers ....................................................................... 75 2.3.4 Animals as voluntary performers ................................................................... 78 2.4 TOWARDS ANIMAL-CENTERED MUSICAL INTERACTION .......................................... 83 2.4.1 Musical capabilities ....................................................................................... 84 2.4.2 Physical and cognitive abilities ..................................................................... 86 2.4.3 Engagement versus training .......................................................................... 87 2.5 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................ 88 3 SONIC EXPERIMENTS WITH GREY PARROTS .............................................. 89 3.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 91 3.2 SONIC EXPERIMENTS AT THE PARROT SHELTER ...................................................... 92 3.3 SONIC PRE-TESTS .................................................................................................... 93 3.4 EXPERIMENT WITH THE ROPE SWING TEST STATION ................................................ 96 3.5 RFID LEG RINGS FOR GREY PARROTS ................................................................... 101 3.6 EXPERIMENTS WITH THE JOYSTICK TEST DEVICE .................................................. 103 3.7 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 106 4 ANIMAL-CENTERED SONIC INTERACTION DESIGN: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND INTERFACES FOR GREY PARROTS ........................... 107 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 109 4.2 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 110 4.2.1 Participatory design ..................................................................................... 111 4.2.2 Interaction design ........................................................................................ 114 4.2.3 Physical design, materiality and color ........................................................ 115 4.3 INSTRUMENT IMPLEMENTATIONS ............................................................ 116 4.3.1 Gong instrument ..........................................................................................