Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) software interface enables people who have very limited controlled (voluntary) movement to independently engage in music making.

Led by musician, composer, and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros, the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) project brings together the expertise of technicians at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the community education initiatives of the Deep Listening Institute.

In collaboration with musician and occupational therapist Leaf Miller, the AUMI software interface was first used in drum workshops with children with disabilities at Abilities First School located in Poughkeepsie, New York. Since these initial workshops, the software interface has been made available as a free internet download and is now in use by therapists both nationally and internationally. The AUMI team is also collaborating with an international research project on Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP), centered at the University of Guelph, Canada. ICASP researchers are exploring improvisation as a model for social change.

The Adaptive Use Musical Instruments software interface enables the user to play sounds and musical phrases through movement and gestures. This is an entry to improvisation rather than “hitting the right notes” or playing set pieces of music. Instead, the software uses music as a way for participants to express a range of affects, both by themselves and in response to, or in conversation with, others. While the AUMI interface can be used by anyone, the focus has been on working with children who have profound physical disabilities. In taking these participants as its starting point the project attempts to make musical improvisation and collaboration accessible to the widest possible range of individuals. This approach also opens up the possibility of learning more about the relations between ability, the body, creativity and improvisation, from within a cultural context that does not always acknowledge or accept people with disabilities.

The AUMI program continues to be revised and improved with input from the technologists, students, therapists and feedback from registered users.  An on-site training program is now available. The latest initiative is the development of an AUMI iPad App.

AUMI Researchers include:

Deep Listening Institute, Inc., Kingston, New York
Staff and students of Abilities First, Inc., Poughkeepsie, New York
Faculty and students of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York
Scholars and students of ICASP from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario
Faculty and students of Memorial University and Easter Seals, St. John’s, Newfoundland
Faculty and students of University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Faculty and Students of McGill University and McKay School, Montreal, Quebec
Faculty of Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario

AUMI Programmers include:

 

Zane Van Duzen

Zevin Polzin

Doug Van Nort

Jaclyn Heyen

Ian Hattwick

Henry Lowengard