![]() Native Instruments (NI) is a German software company that produces music and audio software Reaktor is a commercial product, in its fifth major version at the time of data collection. This study examines a specific user community focused on one particular toolkit environment, Native Instruments’ Reaktor software 1. ![]() Even though there are tens of thousands of users for these production systems, much of their interaction is online the primary context for practice development and transmission in these communities is virtual and technologically mediated. These production environments have grown in popularity over the last decade, developing large user bases aimed at fostering innovative artistic practices. ![]() They also support tool-sharing and reuse, as custom instruments may be distributed to other musicians using the same program. These software environments allow much of the tool customization, expandability and flexibility available to programmers writing code, but with a reduced learning curve and wider appeal due to their visual interface model. Drawing on visual and functional metaphors taken from circuit diagrams, programming flowcharts and physical modular analog audio synthesis, users of these software tools can create virtual musical instruments, performance interfaces and audio composition tools by drawing connections between small functional units (such as oscillators, filters, audio samplers, etc). This is particularly the case for visual programming toolkit environments such as MAX/MSP, PD, Reaktor and Synthedit. For many musicians, composers and performers, one of the most appealing aspects of software tools is the great degree of flexibility and customization they make available to the user. ![]() The laptop is now a common “instrument” on many concert stages and in DJ booths, used in service of nearly every popular music genre, as well as helping spawn new genres in its own right. Similarly, techniques such as granular synthesis and image-to- sound translation that were once primarily the domain of avant garde composers are now available as part of the default presets of consumer level synthesizer plugins. For instance, digital multi-track audio recording was once reserved for expensive recording studios and specialized computer labs, but is now possible with free software on any audio-equipped PC. Driven by the increasing power and decreasing cost of computers, recent decades have seen a dramatic popularization of approaches to music composition and audio synthesis previously accessible only to professional composers and academics. This intersubjective and bi-directional notion of legitimate participation is supported also by the Community of Practice perspective, emphasizing the individual’s process of negotiating multi-membership across multiple communities of practice as a key process in identity formation. Assessment will be driven by the domain of activity, but also driven by social construction of meaning and identity, generated both from within (by the individual participant), as well as from without (by the community/context). What constitutes a valued contribution of creative practice to a community is then highly contextualized. Even subtle differences then between the motivations of different user populations in creative communities will impact their creative activity and their interactions. For instance, Amabile’s meta-analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors has demonstrated a complicated and nuanced set of effects at different stages of the creative process. Research on the role of motivation in creativity has demonstrated that there are both positive and negative effects on particular aspects of creativity. Differences between community members should be particularly relevant in regards to creative activity. These tensions will likely be intensified in the case of heterogeneous online groups, given what is known about the additional challenges to communication, collaboration and creation of common ground by the fewer social, physical and sensory cues present in computer mediated communications. ![]() Enacted and social definitions of practice are potentially problematic in the case of groups containing a high degree of diversity, where overlapping communities of practice are present or where individuals must negotiate variable social roles. the assumption of homogenous user populations tacit in “user-centered design” approaches. ![]()
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