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Arts & Communication Speculative ubimus design

the lack of synchronous sound-sharing. To establish a The applicability and generality of the Ouija model can
minimum common ground between the participants, this be assessed empirically. Can quasi-synchronous visual
soundtrack is used by both instrumentalists. gestural cues support multiple strategies of temporal
The experiment featured two online sessions on the organization? How many stakeholders may be supported
Zoom platform. The total duration of each session was without degrading timing? Could this strategy be adapted to
15 min, with 5 min of musical performance and 10 min of participants that lack musical training? Could the amount
discussion about the session. The participants had access to of visual information be reduced without compromising
a score and a pre-recorded track. However, no prior practice the alignment between the stakeholders’ actions?
or preparation with the Ouija project materials was done By building on implicit knowledge, the Ouija model
before recording. The interviews were conducted shortly fosters the progressive replacement of musical information
after each session with the aim of gathering information exchanges based on symbolic systems. Thus, it provides a
on the spot, focusing on immediate reactions rather than good complement to body-based interaction metaphors,
inducing analysis or reflection at a later time when they such as banging interaction [48,49] .
could reconsider and reinterpret their experiences.
4.3. Case 3: Designing the erlang music generation
Example 2. Ouija excerpt. library (Emugel)
https://youtu.be/qztMjRFOqys Lite coding can be described as an approach to music-
programming tailored for nonprogrammers. To establish
4.2.4. Discussion a minimum common vocabulary among practitioners, lite
coding proposes a reduction of means to boost learnability
A major contribution of the Ouija project is a viable and shareability (these are key targets of the application of
strategy to deal with quasi-synchronous temporalities CT). “Light” in the sense of pliable, accessible, replicable,
in telematic settings. Quasi-synchronicity has also been or modular encompasses both persistent and volatile
approached by the composer Baghwati in various of his sonic resources and is extensible to other senses, including
comprovisational artworks. Baghwati bases his musical visual, haptic, or multimodal information. The use of
techniques on the well-established tradition of nonmetric code as an interface fosters opportunities to investigate
part usage. His approach relaxes synchronicity but retains the limits of semantics within the context of musical
deterministic notation. Hence, it builds on a long-standing knowledge-sharing. Another characteristic of lite coding
tradition of acoustic-instrumental music. This is both a is its nonhierarchical or ‘patchy’ approach to handling
handicap and an advantage. If the stakeholders are trained musical information. As lite coders, we are not interested
instrumentalists, they may rely on an established notation in an all-encompassing or universal language (cf. Mathews,
system. However, if the participants include non-musicians, 1961 for a mainstream vision on music-programming
[50]
this format tends to fail. Score-orientation usually focuses languages). This patchy approach to design is oriented
on symbolic information and centralized cues. Baghwati’s by the adaptive-opportunistic practices that characterize
proposal replaces the mechanical dictatorship of the ubimus initiatives .
[32]
metronome by assigning the task of providing cues to a
human conductor. This enables more flexibility. However, To enable music-making by lay participants, Zheng
[51]
when distant locations are involved, this proposal breaks et al. designed and implemented the Erlang Music
down. Generation Library (Emugel). This library provides
support for casual users to render sonic results and to
Support for temporal organization in Ouija is based
on a flexible yet consistent set of information exchanges facilitate knowledge-sharing. It incorporates current sonic-
that seems to avoid the typical limitations of score-centric generation functionality from Erlang, Python, and Sonic
strategies. The Ouija model builds temporal organization Pi. Six functions are organized as independent tracks. Each
from gestural cues directly linked to the actions involved in track can be freely handled and it is timed concurrently
sound-making. The lack of sonic information releases the by means of a delay parameter that determines its onset.
stakeholders from tight synchronicity. Thus, the process Tracks also feature a duration parameter.
of mutual adaptation among players is supported by the Each track supports a different strategy for music-making.
cues provided through their body movements and facial The function beats_per_minute controls the tempo of
expressions that occur while playing. Given its strong periodic sequences. The pitch_based_track generates
reliance on implicit knowledge, this comprovisational pitch sequences defined as MIDI events or alphanumeric
strategy can be classified as a Theory of Mind ubimus values (i.e., pitch classes). Chord_play allows users to pile
metaphor [45-47] . up long lists of pitch-based aggregates by setting a small set of

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1597