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New Interfaces for Musical Expression

International conference

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
2 min read
Source updated September 5, 2026
Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

New Interfaces for Musical Expression, also known as NIME, is an international conference dedicated to scientific research on the development of new technologies and their role in musical expression and artistic performance.

01History

The conference began as a workshop (NIME 01) at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in 2001 in Seattle, Washington, with the concert and demonstration sessions being held at the Experience Music Project museum. Since then, international conferences have been held annually around the world:

NIME Location by Year
Year Host Institution City Country
2001 ACM CHI'01 and Experience Music Project Seattle USA
2002 Media Lab Europe Dublin Ireland
2003 McGill University Montreal Canada
2004 Shizuoka University of Art and Culture Hamamatsu Japan
2005 University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada
2006 IRCAM Paris France
2007 Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, New York University's Music Technology Program and the Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts New York City USA
2008 Infomus Lab at the University of Genova Genoa Italy
2009 Carnegie Mellon School of Music Pittsburgh USA
2010 University of Technology, Sydney Sydney Australia
2011 University of Oslo Oslo Norway
2012 University of Michigan Ann Arbor USA
2013 Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Daejeon;Seoul South Korea
2014 Goldsmiths University London UK
2015 Louisiana State University Baton Rouge USA
2016 Griffith University Brisbane Australia
2017 Aalborg University Copenhagen Denmark
2018 Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia Blacksburg USA
2019 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto Alegre Brazil
2020 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire virtual conference, due to COVID-19
2021 NYU Shanghai Shanghai; virtual China
2022 University of Auckland Auckland; virtual New Zealand
2023 Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Mexico City; virtual Mexico

02Areas of application

The following is a partial list of topics covered by the NIME conference:

  • Design reports on novel controllers and interfaces for musical expression
  • Performance experience reports on live performance and composition using novel controllers
  • Controllers for virtuosic performers, novices, education and entertainment
  • Perceptual & cognitive issues in the design of musical controllers
  • Movement, visual and physical expression with sonic expressivity
  • Musical mapping algorithms and intelligent controllers
  • Novel controllers for collaborative performance
  • Interface protocols for musical control (e.g. Open Sound Control)
  • Artistic, cultural, and social impact of new performance interfaces
  • Real-time gestural control in musical performance
  • Mapping strategies and their influence on digital musical instrument design
  • Sensor and actuator technologies for musical applications
  • Haptic and force feedback devices for musical control
  • Real-time computing tools and interactive systems
  • Pedagogical applications of new interfaces - Courses and curricula
Watch videos about New Interfaces for Musical ExpressionExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “New Interfaces for Musical Expression”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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