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Astrid Bin

Director of Design

Bela.io

About Me

Astrid Bin is an artist and designer who specialises in making complex things useful, beautiful and understandable. Alongside her history of working as an announcer for international Lego robot competitions and explaining rocket science to children, she's also worked as a music technology researcher across academia and industry, and currently leads design at Bela.io. She lives in Berlin.

Sessions

  • Our Ultra-Processed Interfaces

    What Music Technology Can Learn From Doritos
    10:00 - 10:50 UTC | Tuesday 12th November 2024 | Bristol 3
    Beginner
    Intermediate
    Advanced

    Many digital musical instruments, both commercial and otherwise, share similar interface design characteristics like rectangular rubber pads, piano interfaces, sliders, and grids of controls. These conventions are useful, but where do they come from, and why are they so ubiquitous? In this talk I dive deep into how the design conventions of music interfaces have evolved, and how traditionally they're deeply rooted in the culture in which they're created ... until recently. I discuss how this decoupling of musical interfaces from cultural context has developed alongside the larger contemporary trend of "ultra-processing", a way of creating consumable products, from food […]