Physically-based sounding objects, as we develop them today

The possibility of manipulating tapes opened up, in the 1950s, the era of phenomenological sound description and manipulation. In the following decades the emergence of computers, programming languages, and analysis/synthesis techniques, allowed the deconstruction of sound matter at the level of the elementary attributes of signals. Nowadays, we have a rich repertoire of modeling techniques that allow us to tackle the world of sound at different levels of complexity, taking both physical descriptions and phenomenological experiences into account. We can develop physically based sounding objects that can be manipulated according to everyday experience and embodied into artifacts that support continuous interaction.