Exploring the Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Second-Wave Ubiquitous Music.

CFP
Leonardo – Special Section: Exploring the Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Second-Wave Ubiquitous Music

Co-editors:
Damián Keller
Anthony (aka Tony) L. Brooks
Martin K. Koszolko

1 Full Professor Music Technology, Federal University of Acre and Federal University of Paraiba, Brazil
2 Professor Emeritus Aalborg University, Denmark
3 Lecturer in Music Industry, the University of Newcastle, Australia

Ubiquitous music (ubimus) is an emergent field of research that combines several areas from sound and music computing, human computer interaction, creativity studies, and music education, with a strong social and community underpinning. The term owes its origins to concepts and ideas around ubiquitous computing, connecting with the principle that deep technologies “weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” (Weiser, 1991). Frequently, it is assumed that music is ubiquitous in society but, more often than not, it is experienced in a passive way. Our perspective on ubiquitous music as a field of study aims to foster new opportunities for creative participation, open to all.

Since its beginnings in 2007, ubimus has featured a variety of artistic, social, and
technological perspectives that highlight the field’s potential for applications in diverse contexts. While the impact of the emergent infrastructures for music making
remains central in ubimus debates, the social and cognitive dimensions of ubimus
research has gained strength due to the deployment of ubimus resources for educational and artistic endeavours. For instance, a topic such as creativity – increasingly tied to cultural and social factors (Glăveanu, 2013) – has been adopted as a relevant theme of ubimus research (Keller and Lazzarini, 2015).

Furthermore, the push for the adoption of technological infrastructure in both public and domestic settings is increasingly being subjected to critical analysis. Ubimus' proposals explore the artistic possibilities of music-making incorporating casual participants with no formal musical training. Thus, both musicians and non-musicians are potential stakeholders. These mixed modes of participation have unveiled opportunities to repurpose Internet of Things resources and multisensorial-interaction techniques to address the limitations of the current infrastructure, beyond the standard artistic venues. These practices incorporate the extant technological resources and also highlight the emergent social and cognitive demands of activities tailored for everyday settings. Hence, rather than a genre-oriented trend, second-wave ubiquitous music proposals may be characterised as a movement that targets music-making as a universal right, skewing the imposition of hegemonic and prepackaged aesthetic choices.

In line with the above, this special section/series, whilst focusing upon featuring expanded versions of peer-reviewed texts from the annual conferences Ubiquitous Music Symposium (to be held in Morelia, Mexico, in 2025) and ArtsIT2024 (held in New York University, Abu Dhabi, November 2024), is open for text submissions by others interested in the ubiquitous music topic. Relevant topics include the active ubimus threads featured in the references below, plus the exploration of interdisciplinary connections involving music for well-being, domestic ubimus, everyday musical creativity, multisensorial strategies for musical interaction, and the incorporation of large language models in creative music-making. An aim of this special section/series is the elaboration of a second-wave manifesto that condenses several of the major trends that emerged in ubimus research since 2015.


Schedule:

March-April 2025: deadline for article submission
3 November 2025: final drafts (after revisions)
Early 2026: publication

References
Brooks, A. L. (1999). Virtual interactive space (V.I.S.) as a movement capture interface tool giving multimedia feedback for treatment and analysis, Int. Congress of The World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT), Yokohama, Japan. WCPT/Science Links Japan.
Brooks, A. L. (2007). Special Issue on ArtAbilitation, Digital Creativity, 18(2).
Brooks, A. L. (2011). Intelligent Decision-Support in Virtual Reality Healthcare & Rehabilitation. Springer Studies in Computational Intelligence, 326, 143-169.
Brooks, A. L. (2020). Special Issue on Shifting Boundaries: Practices and Theories, Arts and Technologies, Digital Creativity, 31(3).
Brooks, A. L. (2023). Creating Digitally: Shifting Boundaries: Arts and Technologies - Contemporary Applications and Concepts. Springer Intelligent Systems Reference Library.
Brooks, A. L. and Hasselblad, S. (2004). CAREHERE - Creating Aesthetically Resonant Environments for the Handicapped, Elderly and Rehabilitation: Sweden, Int. Conf. on Disability, Virtual Reality, and Associated Technologies. Oxford University, pp. 191–198.
Brooks, A. L. and Petersson, E. (2005). Recursive reflection and learning in raw data video analysis of interactive 'play' environments for special needs health care, Healthcom 2005: The 7th International Workshop on Enterprise networking and Computing in Healthcare Industry. Busan, Korea, 23-25 June. IEEE/Korea Multimedia Society, pp. 83-87.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2013). Rewriting the language of creativity: The Five A's framework. Review of General Psychology 17(1), 69-81.

Keller, D., Lazzarini, V. and Pimenta, M. S. (eds.) (2014). Ubiquitous Music, Vol. XXVIII, Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing.

Keller, D. and Lazzarini, V. (2015). Special Issue on Creativity-Centered Design and the Digital Arts. Journal of Cases in Information Technology 17, i-v.

Keller, D., Lazzarini, V. and Schiavoni, F. (2019). Ubiquitous music: Perspectives and challenges. Journal of New Music Research 48(4).

Koszolko, M. K., Studley, T. (2023). From Site-Specific Sampling to Gamification: An exploration of performative engagement with the environment. Organised Sound 28(3), 338-351.

Lazzarini, V. and Keller, D. (2021). Editors’ notes: Geysers, bacteria, electricity, and a flippin’ pompom'. Computer Music Journal 44(1), 6-16.

Lazzarini, V., Keller, D., Otero, N. and Turchet, L. (eds.) (2020). Ubiquitous Music Ecologies. London: Taylor & Francis (Routledge).
Weiser, M. (1991). The Computer for the 21st Century. 265(3), 94–101.



Issue Editors

Damián Keller is a Full Professor of Music Technology at the Federal University of Acre and the Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil. Co-founder and member of the research network Ubiquitous Music Group, he has published over two hundred papers on ubiquitous music and ecologically grounded creative practice. He is currently associate editor of the Journal of Cases in Information Technology (Vancouver), and Arts & Communication (Singapore).

Anthony (aka Tony) Brooks is emeritus affiliated to Aalborg University Denmark. His research spanning from mid 1980s to 2000 led to European and Danish multi-million euros funded projects, an industry start-up, and commercial product. National, international and fellow conferred awards align with Brooks’ approx 250 publications that include six patents, 12 books, and a music CD album. He is Danish representative under The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and steering chair under the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) of ArtsIT (Arts and Technology, Interactivity, and Game Creation) conf.

Martin K. Koszolko is a researcher, music, and video producer. His research interests include the affordances of mobile music-making technologies and remote music collaboration practices. He has presented at national and international seminars and conferences and has published in the fields of collaborative and mobile music production. Martin is Lecturer in Music Industry at the University of Newcastle in Australia and serves as the vice-president of Clan Analogue, Australia’s longest-running electronic music collective. He is an award-winning music producer known for his creative work under the KOshowKO, Philosophy of Sound, and iubar project monikers, as well as his contributions to over 50 releases on multiple record labels.