FlueBricks: A Construction Kit of Flute-like Instruments for Acoustic Reasoning
This work addresses the need for pedagogical tools to enhance embodied acoustic reasoning, particularly for learners and musicians, though it is incremental as it builds on existing concepts of modular instrument design.
The researchers tackled the problem of acoustic reasoning by developing FlueBricks, a construction kit for building and customizing flute-like instruments, which enabled users to understand how components like blowholes and tube length affect sound properties through hands-on experimentation, as shown in a study with 12 participants who effectively engaged in design and play roles.
We present FlueBricks, a construction kit for acoustic reasoning via building and customizing flute-like instruments. By assembling generator, resonator, and connector modules that embody various aeroacoustic properties, users gain deeper understanding of how blowhole, tube length, and tone-hole placement alter onset, pitch, and timbre through hands-on experimentation. This forms a designer-player loop of configuring and playing to form, test, and refine acoustic behaviors-acoustic reasoning-shifting acoustic instruments from static artifacts to dynamic systems. To understand how users engage with this system, we conducted an exploratory study with 12 participants ranging from novices to professional musicians. During their explorations, we observed participants fluently switching between designer and player roles, scaffolding designs from familiar instruments, forming and refining their acoustic understanding of length, tone holes, and generator geometry, reinterpreting modules beyond their intended functions, and using their creations for performative acts such as pedagogical showing and musical expression. These collectively demonstrated FlueBricks's potential as a pedagogical tool for embodied acoustic reasoning.