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Arts & Communication Speculative ubimus design

applicability to different disciplines and domains. formalization . While fostering the use of computers for
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Jansen et al. enroll abstraction, design patterns, and creative purposes, Vaggione pointed out that practices
[53]
frameworks as forms of CT. These issues have been well geared toward the advancement of musical knowledge
explored within ubimus and have gained practical weight cannot be tailored exclusively to teleological processes.
through field deployments. CT might be particularly Some forms of music-making are amenable to teleological
st
well equipped to tackle some ubimus knowledge-sharing methods but most 21 century musical practices resist
activities that have remained either unattended or not explicit formalization. Problem-solving demands full
fully developed. Furthermore, ubimus knowledge- knowledge of the resources to be applied to the solution
sharing techniques involving CT highlight the usefulness of the problem at hand. Furthermore, it requires a clear
of specific design strategies. The following targets should understanding of what constitutes a solution for the given
be considered: problem. Those two conditions are seldom met in creative
(i) Encourage the use of analogies so that the participants music-making.
are stimulated to explore potential connections Distributed uncategorized resources: Ubimus methods
between subject matters. For instance, the construction employ technological and environmental resources for
of the analogies serves to bridge domains, as applied to creative music making which are not amenable to the
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musical time, iteration, and the unveiling of periodic acoustic-instrumental views on creativity. For instance,
structures. It also involves conceptualizing the the use of massively distributed resources may entail the
analogies and analyzing whether and how participants deployment of creativity support metaphors that target
appropriate and assimilate the proposed abstractions probable behaviors rather than deterministic processes.
into their activities. This may be due to the limitations of the transmission
(ii) Avoid excessive focus on details so that the protocols and to the heterogeneity of the devices, and in
stakeholders are able to abstract. Creative music- some cases, it may involve large physical distances between
making demands full engagement during the locations. Hence, the relationship of one-physical-action to
activities. Difficulties in recalling the creative one-sonic-outcome of the acoustic-instrumental approach
processes can hinder reflections on the connections becomes secondary.
between domains, impacting the intersection 11 After over 20 years, his words are still meaningful:
between CT and music-making. “Composers are concerned with the creation of musical
(iii) Provide tools that facilitate abstractions across situations emerging concretely out of a critical interaction
domains of computational and musical concepts. with their materials, including their algorithms. This task
Cross-domain external representations support the cannot be exhausted by a linear (a priori, non-interactive)
elicitation and externalization of musical knowledge problem-solving approach. Interaction is here matching
which may trigger further explorations. There are an important feature of musical composition processes,
multiple challenges in designing and using hybrid giving room for the emergence of irreducible situations
representations. We analyze some of these issues through non-linear interaction. Irreducibility is perhaps
a key word in this context, as we are dealing with music’s
below. categories and ends. Music is not dependent on logical
(iv) Using multiple external representations may foster constructs unverified by physical experience. Composers,
CT within ubimus activities. When the links between especially those using computers, have learned—sometimes
different modalities are in place, multiple external painfully—that the formal rigor of a generative function
representations may promote processes such as does not guarantee by itself the musical coherence of a
abstraction, extension, or generalization of knowledge. result. Despite the many formalist examples in sec. 3, music
Nevertheless, connecting external representations is cannot be reduced to a formalized discipline: even if music
far from trivial. actually uses knowledge and tools coming from formalized
disciplines, formalization does not play a foundational role
Abstractions. The use of abstractions through object- in regard to musical processes.” (our italics).
[54]
oriented techniques was very popular in computer- 12 According to Keller and Costa , the acoustic-instrumental
[55]
based music-making during the 1980s and 1990s. In approach targets simplified forms of sonic-parameter
an influential article, Argentinian composer Horacio manipulations involving, for instance, the usage of discrete
pitches (preferably following the standard temperament),
[54]
Vaggione argued for the adoption of object-oriented time parsed into discrete durations (ideally represented
techniques in acousmatic music-making, pointing to as notes within a meter-based representation) and the
the need for support to deal with complex issues that are adoption of a fixed set of timbres (usually based on acoustic-
difficult to verbalize or conceptualize, being refractive to instrumental models).

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 11 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1597