3. INTRODUCTION
Just about every family has an heirloom of one
sort or another. They can be something as simple
as a locket or a watch, or as extravagant as a
family estate. Heirlooms have value because of
what they represent. They represent a person's
or family's history: where they've been and what
they've done. They are evidence of the past pre-
served in the present.
We chose to focus on heirlooms surrounding the
topic of music, and more particular, heirlooms that
would be meaningful to a family of musicians.
Families of musicians have opportunities that
other families do not. They can play together as
a family, parents can tutor their children, and they
can travel to exotic places for performances. We
wanted to explore the domain of digital heirlooms
that could preserve and protect these unique op-
portunities in a way that would be meaningful to
their owners.
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4. EXEMPLARS
This service, offered by an indi-
vidual, was the only service discov-
ered that deals with musical arti-
facts as heirlooms. As part of this
service, musical instruments that
are no longer played are converted
into usable table lamps. While this
is a unique and creative service,
the heirlooms that are created are
static and may not convey much
meaning to later generations.
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5. EXEMPLARS
The majority of services that we
found offering digital heirlooms all
generally offered the same services
as these two. The status quo for
today is to simply digitize exist-
ing artifacts (photos, videos, old
newspapers, etc), perform touch-
up on them, and to optionally hold
them for your surviving descen-
dants. This is a logical and useful
first step for preserving existing
items which can be digitized, but
the digital artifacts may not contain
the same meaning as their physical
counterparts. The digital should be
tied to the physical.
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6. CONCEPTS | Piano with Camera and Photo Frame
Pianos are both individual and social instruments. When a family surrounds a piano to sing Christmas carols, fond memories are
generated, but the interactions that compose those memories are difficult to capture. Additionally, if a family member does happen
to have a camera at hand, interesting candid moments may occur and pass by before that person has a chance to make their camera
ready to capture them.
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7. CONCEPTS | Piano with Camera and Photo Frame
An upright piano can be augmented to record it’s
own history and the history of its players by adding a
camera, recording device, and a digital picture frame.
While the piano is being played, it will randomly take
snapshots of its player and record the music that’s
being played at that moment. This presents the op-
portunity to capture unique and memorable moments
with the piano. The images that are captured are
then displayed in slide show fashion on a digital pic-
ture frame which sets on the piano. If a person view-
ing the images becomes interested in one in particu-
lar, they can have the piano play back the music that
was being played when that image was taken. Over
several years, a history of the piano can be collected
and shared all within the piano itself.
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8. CONCEPTS | Embedded Memories
Music professionals travel quite a lot for performances and various “gigs”. These trips have the potential to
take the musicians to distant places where they would want to purchase souvenirs to remember their experi-
ence there. These souvenirs can be collected and displayed as memories for themselves and their families if
they happened to come along on the trip.
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9. CONCEPTS | Embedded Memories
Besides souvenirs, musical professionals also collect other objects related to their trips, such as lo-
cal newspapers which report the performance, or video and CD recordings of the performances. The
Embedded Memories device will connect the souvenirs with all the other digitalized data related to the
same travel. When a souvenir is put on this device, the family could view related digital data on a TV
or other display devices. In this way, the stories behind the heirlooms will be kept.
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10. CONCEPTS | Digital Music Box
Music boxes are delicate devices that have special meanings when given as gifts. The meaning is cre-
ated both from the person giving the gift, and the music that is contained within. An emotional link
is created for the recipient between the music and the giver so that the recipient is reminded of the
giver each time they hear the music. The meaning created through the emotional link also adds value
to the music box creating an heirloom-worthy object.
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11. CONCEPTS | Digital Music Box
The digital music box looks just like a traditional mu-
sic box on the outside, but on the inside, the music
device is replaced with a digital music player and an
image screen is placed on the underside of the lid.
The device can be loaded with music that is important
to the owner and may have emotional meanings for
them. The owner can also load images that are re-
lated to the music that will be shown on the lid when
the music is playing. When the device is passed on
to a new owner, that new owner can experi- ence the
memories of the previous owner(s) and also add their
own music and images that will eventually be shared
with the next owner.
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13. REFERENCES
Primary Attribution Secondary Attribution
Source: Interview with the Clark family, Anhe Guo Source: Instrument lamps
and Andrew Hettlinger http://suwardimusic.com/lamps.aspx
16 February 2012
Source: Heritage Keep
Image: IPad on piano, Anhe Guo http://www.heritagekeep.com/heritagekeep-process.html
24 February 2012
Source: Digital Heirlooms
Image: Tom plays the saxophone, http://www.digitalheirlooms.com/
Andrew Hettlinger
24 February 2012 Image: Family Image, monasosh
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89031137@N00/1409741735/
Image: Souvenirs, Andrew Hettlinger
24 February 2012 Image: Bookshelf
http://were-wolf-101.deviantart.com/art/
Image: Newspaper, Andrew Hettlinger bookshelf-169896325
24 February 2012
Image: End table
Image: Saxophone engraving, Anhe Guo http://www.maisonsdumonde.com/UK/en/produits/fiche/
24 February 2012 end-table-stockholm-110288.htm
Image: Saxophone detail, Andrew Hettlinger Image: World map
24 February 2012 http://www.wpclipart.com/geography/world_maps/
world_map_simple.png.html
Image: Musical family, Andrea Rose
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrearosephotography/
5307601322/
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