Accessibility of sensors, algorithms and 3D printers allow us to make customised instruments for everyday life, and in particular for music. This makes it possible to make custom interfaces for making music for people with very specific abilities, instead of having to resort to the mass-produced musical interfaces, which assume a standardised set of gestures.

Being able to play music is an important aspect of quality of life – it is fun, it stimulates movement, it allows you to communicate, it releases tension, and it gives you a sense of being in control. In this talk we will reflect on the process of making such instruments, and the challenges and solutions we found for them. In particular we will show the instrument that was made at STEIM in collaboration with the Vanboeijen Institute, and the DJ-interface made for DJ Luki by Kassen and Moos.

Presented with Native Instruments and the SHAPE platform, which is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.