Professor-researcher and multimedia artist Xiao Xiao delivered an inviting talk in the CHIME seminar series, an EPSRC-funded initiative focused on Music and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Her presentation, “Tuning into Intangibility: Lessons for HCI from Theremin Learning,” explored how her experiences mastering the Theremin—a touchless electronic instrument—have informed her research in HCI.
Xiao Xiao’s CHIME seminar emphasizes Theremin’s potential as a lens to reimagine interaction design in HCI. By drawing on embodied learning strategies from music, her research bridges the gap between artistic practice and technological innovation, opening new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration within the CHIME network and beyond.
Bridging Music and HCI through the Theremin
The Theremin, a pioneering electronic instrument known for its gesture-based interaction, presents a paradox: it is both an exemplar of direct input-output mapping and a device criticized for lacking tactile feedback, making it notoriously challenging to master.
Despite these challenges, expert thereminists achieve expressive performances. Xiao Xiao explored these phenomena through an autoethnographic study involving 235 journal entries collected over three years, analyzing the embodied strategies facilitating proficiency with intangible interfaces.
Key findings from her research reveal that successful theremin playing relies heavily on continuous auditory feedback, proprioception, imagination, and a close integration of hand movements with vocal expression. These insights challenge conventional critiques of Theremin’s design and provide new perspectives on learning and interacting with intangible interfaces.
Implications for HCI and Beyond
Building on her theremin experiences, Xiao Xiao has developed innovative interfaces with applications in language learning, rehabilitation, and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).
Her work exemplifies how embodied interaction strategies from music can inform broader HCI research, particularly in designing systems that prioritize expressiveness and adaptability over conventional tactile feedback.
The Role of CHIME in Advancing Interdisciplinary Research
Xiao Xiao’s seminar reflects the CHIME network’s mission to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between music interaction researchers and the broader HCI community.
Since its launch in April 2022, CHIME has aimed to create a sustainable dialogue between academics, creative industries, and charitable organizations.
Through seminars, workshops, and training sessions, CHIME supports researchers at all career stages and encourages the development of innovative tools and methods.
About Xiao Xiao
A researcher at DVRC and accomplished multimedia artist Xiao Xiao’s work centres on understanding how people learn and developing tools to facilitate skill acquisition.
Her background includes a PhD at MIT’s Tangible Media Group, where she designed interfaces to explore the expressive dimensions of piano playing. She has also contributed to linguistics research at Sorbonne Nouvelle, creating gesture-controlled tools for teaching intonation in foreign languages.
Beyond academia, Xiao Xiao has developed interactive multimedia installations and co-edited a collection of essays by AI pioneer Marvin Minsky. Her musical exploration extends to instruments like the piano, ukulele, and Theremin, culminating in co-creating T-Voks, a theremin-based system enabling vocal synthesis. T-Voks was a finalist in the 2022 Guthman musical instruments competition.
