{SW}ARMED: Captive Portals, Mobile Devices, and Audience Participation in Multi-User Music Performance

Audience participation in computer music has long been limited byresources such as sensor technology or the material goods necessary toshare such an instrument. A recent paradigm is to take advantageof the incredible popularity of the smart-phone, a pocket sizedcomputer, and other mobile devices, to provide the audience aninterface into a computer music instrument. In this paper we discuss amethod of sharing a computer music instrument's interface with anaudience to allow them to interact via their smartphone. We propose amethod that is relatively cross-platform and device-agnostic, yetstill allows for a rich user-interactive experience. By emulating acaptive-portal or hotspot we reduce the adoptability issues and configurationproblems facing performers and their audience. We share ourexperiences with this system, as well as an implementation of thesystem itself.