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Arts & Communication Speculative ubimus design

Ouzounian et al. target three speculative formats involves the implementation of a new approach to music-
[43]
tied to exchanges in social networks: selfies, tweets, and making, lite coding. These examples furnish a springboard
emoticons. They conducted a series of workshops leading to situate our speculative-design investigations and feature
to the development of a prototype, Helmholtz. This strikingly diverse methods. Case 3 involves the application
prototype is based on “a feedback loop between the phone’s of CT within ubimus practice. This is an emerging area of
microphone and loudspeaker which, when the [device] research that has not been explored by speculative design.
is brought in proximity with an object, creates a ringing Case 2 provides an application of the ecological framework
resonant feedback tone.” within the context of comprovisation, emphasizing
Thus, the authors conceptualize the selfie as a feedback information-sharing of implicit knowledge without relying
loop. According to their description, the selfie constitutes on sound. Thus, it points in the opposite direction of
an emergent product of the interaction between body, previous speculative design projects. Case 1 is an example
environment, and technology. It is a portrait of a person of an extended group-design activity that featured detailed
situated in an environment continually adjusting her tracking of exchanges. It involves a steep reduction of
face, pose, posture, or framing until a satisfying image the ecological footprint, thus it points in the direction of
is produced. This concept is applied to the resonance increased sustainability in creative practice.
arising between a local sound source and a mobile phone’s 4. Design deployments
microphone and loudspeaker. The outcome, a musical selfie,
is a ringing resonant tone, controlled by the characteristics 4.1. Case 1: InMesh 1.0
of the audio input in tandem with the feedback parameters Exhibited at MediaNoche Media Gallery (New York City)
supported by the prototype. in 2014, the multimedia installation InMesh 1.0 immerses

Musically, this notion is not new. It has been explored visitors in a three-dimensional ambience of Amazonian
in various artworks since Lucier’s (1969) I am sitting environmental images, sounds and sculptural objects. The
[44]
in a room (see a current incarnation of this idea in spatial affordances are molded by translucent nets. Sonic
Phivos-Angelos Kollias’s proposals) . The connections events are diffused, triggering time-varying relationships
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between feedback systems and ecologically grounded between sights and sounds. The aim is to provide
creative practices have also been explored by various ecologically grounded experiences to foster critical views
composers, such as Kollias and Di Scipio (see Keller and of the impact of the Capitalocene on Amazonian everyday
Lazzarini ). Thus, the metaphor of the musical selfie fits activities.
[15]
within the ecological thread of ubimus speculative design. 4.1.1. Methods
A particularly interesting feature is its potential for quickly
sharing the musical outcomes suggesting a group activity Regarding the design process, technological support
organized as a collage, rather than the ego-oriented activity was incorporated through cycles of demand, trial, and
of photographing oneself. Another aspect that connects assessment. Priority was given to repurposing of resources
this proposal to ubimus endeavors is the usage of local in an attempt to foster the adoption of sustainable
sonic resources, previously explored in time tagging and infrastructure [18,30] . During an 11-week period, the three
other ubimus creative-action metaphors [33,37] . subjects’ creative activities were monitored using two
tools: a virtual forum and a file-exchange repository. The
Despite the alignment of the concept of musical
selfie with speculative ubimus designs, some caveats still exchange platforms were Evernote for argumentation
and Dropbox for media files exchanges. Three types of
need to be addressed. Feedback processes tend to enter activities were tracked. Dialogic exchanges encompass all
self-excitatory modes that build up until they exceed a the discussions carried out on the project-management
manageable amplitude. Careful design strategies have to be platform. Epistemic activity involves sharing either actual
introduced to deal with this problem. More varied audio- resources or creative surrogates . Executive exchanges lead
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processing techniques could be applied to enable results to decisions with direct impact on the creative outcomes.
beyond pitch-based outcomes. Other musical dimensions
may involve handling time-based organization of events. 4.1.2. Results
Further issues are discussed in the conclusion.
Dialogic exchanges encompassed the entire cycle. Some
The remaining sections are structured around three of the exchanges were organizational while others dealt
design deployments. The first two are explorations of
ubimus support for artistic practice and the third one 8 Creative surrogates are digital replacements of resources
used to accelerate interactions and reduce the activities’
7 https://phivos-angelos-kollias.com/?page_id=535 ecological footprint.

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1597