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Arts & Communication Speculative ubimus design

Despite a strong convergence on major research goals Ecological thinking enables musicians to explore
that inform design decisions, the ubimus community is multiple dimensions of musical interaction and sound-
highly dynamic and diverse. Hence, it is hard to gauge making, from the micro- and meso-temporal forms
6
or predict the weight of specific frameworks. Just a few of organization of timbre , to the performance and
[26]
unordered and unclassified examples give a sense of the unstructured aspects of interaction [11,30,31] , eventually
challenges faced by ubimus theorizing (cf. Keller 2018 for leading to the crossmodal and adaptive strategies that
[17]
a more detailed treatment of this topic): the early exploration engage computing through multiple senses [12,32] . As a
of browser-based prototyping [18,19] , the implementation byproduct, these initiatives have yielded a body of methods
of the first open mobile-platform audio-mixing systems grouped under the label of ecologically grounded creative
and mobile-platform programming tools [20,21] , an early practice, henceforth called the ecological framework .
[15]
social-network tool for musical interaction , the initial We can summarize major outcomes of the ecological
[3]
explorations of IoT-based musical deployments including framework as a few bullet points. First, rather than
both social-networking and robotics and more recently, focusing exclusively on the creative outcomes, ecologically
[22]
the development of prototyping strategies for gastrosonics, grounded deployments engage with creative potentials
timbre-based designs of percussive sonic resources, plus that encompass both cognitive and material resources.
the archeological reconstruction of one of the first acoustic To attain socially meaningful results, deployments target
compilers [5,12,23] . ecologically valid contexts. Second, time becomes a

The remaining sections of the paper are organized as key variable in assessing performance-based creativity.
follows. First, we outline the concept of speculative design Behavioral and material resources can be sampled and
and point to several connections with the evidence-based manipulated to gain insights on the dynamics of the
research fostered by ubimus. Then, we present three core creative processes. Depending on the temporal frame of
cases—InMesh, Ouija, and Emugel prototype — and observation, experiments may target the timbral profile
elaborate their contributions to ubimus practice through a of the sonic events , the short-term musical activity [11,33] ,
[14]
speculative perspective. Finally, we highlight the limitations or the longitudinal analysis of design strategies . Third,
[34]
and opportunities for expansion of our approach toward the impact of the creative processes can be assessed by
a tighter integration between ubimus philosophy, design, tracking the resources gathered, consumed, and discarded
and music-making. during the activity, as a function of time. Thus, the
unintended byproducts of the creative act are as relevant
2. Speculative ubimus design as the intentional products. When long observational
[Speculative design] thrives on imagination and windows are used, information on the sustainability of
aims to open up new perspectives on what are the creative approach may also be obtained. Finally, the
sometimes called wicked problems, to create creative products can be assessed in light of the resources
spaces for discussion and debate about alternative and potentials being handled throughout the creative
ways of being, and to inspire and encourage activity.
people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design Despite the contributions of ecological thinking to the
speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively advancement of the ubimus agenda, there are some areas
redefining our relationship to reality . of design that tend to resist the application of a materially
[24]
Music-making can be extended to the design of support oriented perspective. Ubimus fosters and is motivated
infrastructure for artistic practice. Rather than limiting by musical diversity. Thus, it encourages and demands
music to a sonic product bound to a specialized object multiple technical, esthetic, and conceptual strategies. As
(such as a musical instrument), music as a tool for survival it will become clear in the analysis of the three cases, the
involves playing out social relational properties situated in ecological framework furnishes a consistent lens to analyze
a material context. A good metaphor to capture the nuances the material aspects of artistic practice. However, it may be
of this process is the cognitive ecology . Thus, ubiquitous resistant to proposals that focus on abstracted properties
[14]
music incorporates ecological thinking as a framework for that emerge from conceptual relationships. The latter
the design of musical experiences 5[25] . might be better served by fiction-oriented or speculative
analysis. We group these methods under the rubric of
5 Musical activities and experiences encompass all modalities speculative ubimus design.
of sensing and actuation. Thus, it is a misrepresentation to
describe ubimus as exclusively related to sound, or even 6 Meso time was introduced in the music field by Keller
worse as limited to the use of symbolic musical data (as and Truax , further developed in [14,27,28] and subsequently
[26]
some authors have suggested). applied to a long series of artistic projects .
[29]
Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1597