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Arts & Communication Speculative ubimus design

Speculative ubimus design encompasses investigations The design explorations just outlined may be expanded
of philosophical aspects of music-making that resist a by applying speculative techniques. Regarding temporalities,
standard musicological treatment. Consider, for instance, an important limitation of current music-programming
the well-established construct of organized sound, languages is their reliance either on concepts rooted in
pioneered by Edgard Varese . Ubimus deployments common-practice notation or on infrastructure-oriented
[35]
have unveiled several limitations of this construct. Based protocols (see, for instance, the ongoing attempts to
[36]
on recent artistic outcomes, Keller et al. conclude replace MIDI as the most widely adopted protocol on non-
that “while all music-making features some form of professional consumer-level equipment) (cf. Camporez
organization of sonic information, musical activity does et al., 2018 ). As we will investigate in the context of lite
[38]
not necessarily entail an increase in the predictability of coding (Case 3), handling temporalities without applying
(the musical materials). The creative process does not acoustic-instrumental notions and concomitantly skewing
always produce more structure in sound. The level of technicalities might entail adopting speculative-design
organization depends on the goals defined as a result of the strategies. Furthermore, access to multimodal information —
musical activities.” Thus, the authors propose a refinement a key feature of some ubimus deployments — may require a
of this concept, taking into account two factors: (i) some hybrid outlook to support unstructured knowledge-sharing
outcomes of musical activities do not necessarily imply (Case 1). An emerging framework useful for this context is
a higher level of organization (or a reduction of entropy, ASC (creative semantic anchoring) . Nevertheless, some
[39]
in system-oriented terms). Some forms of music-making aspects of semantics-based tools for music-making still
target a suspension of rationality and consequently remain dubious. The use of generative features of natural
demand designs that incorporate the unpredictable language as opposed to the usage of materially grounded
influences of the environment, of the infrastructure or meaning is a case in point. An initial exploration of the
of the stakeholders as sources of contingency (see the limits of generative versus materially grounded meanings
concept of Gelassenheit ); (ii) The resources shared might be well served by speculative design. A third aspect
[11]
during musical activities are not limited to (and in some that may be explored through fictional methods is the realm
contexts do not target) transduced sound. Consequently, of contingency (Case 2). This factor remains challenging, on
ubimus design strategies may center on sharing resources the one hand, because of the difficulty to predict the sources
that carry sonic information, rather than actual sound. An of variability, and on the other hand, because of the slow
[5]
example is the development of the field of gastrosonics , incorporation of semantics-based interaction metaphors that
which relies on taste or smell congruency as a sensorial avoid domain-specific knowledge. Hopefully, speculative
conduit of information to support creative choices. strategies may furnish a way to test the conceptual limits of
design features without investing massively on development
Ubimus frameworks feature the ability to deal with and deployment of infrastructure.
musical time without resorting to genre- or domain-
specific mechanisms. Tempo, beat or pulse, bar or 3. Related initiatives in speculative design
measure, and rhythmic figures are all forms of temporal
[40]
regimentation tied to meter-based musical thinking. Vieira de Oliveira proposes three speculative objects
Ubimus stakeholders handle sonic resources through the to support a change of attitude toward live performance:
organization of temporalities, consequently avoiding the Alboto, Zandok, and Denori. Alboto is a wooden sculpture
corset of the metric system enforced by common-practice to be used while remembering the experience of attending
notation. For instance, the creative-action metaphor time- a live performance. Alboto is a wooden dome connected
tagging employs local acoustic cues to scaffold decision- to two rubber tubes that serve as an acoustic amplifier.
making processes that target the distribution of sonic It is used to focus or to avoid sound sources during a
events on a temporal axis . As a complement, graphic- live performance. Denori is a mobile phone attached to
[37]
procedural tagging employs the features of found images balloons. It transmits images and sounds taken from the
to share visual information that triggers musical actions . panoramic perspective of a floating camera, which are sent
[19]
While some collaborative ubimus activities may rely on to another mobile telephone held by the participant.
explicit and ongoing verbal exchanges toward collective The three proposals embody a criticism of the passive
decision-making , most ubimus approaches do not require attitude to listening that has become a norm in commercial
[3]
synchronous or explicit interactions to achieve shared music events. The low-tech, no-implementation, integral
musical outcomes (see more on this below). Consequently, repurposing methods fit within the DIY initiatives
ubimus methods stretch the fabric of musical time by championed by ubimus projects [41,42] . This work stretches
supporting alternative strategies for esthetic decision- the notion of design to a bare minimum recombination of
making. low-tech objects.

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1597