Editors' Notes: Geysers, Bacteria, Electricity, and a Flippin' Pompom

Ubiquitous music ("ubimus") is a relatively new area of research, having developed from its embryonic stage in the mid 2000s to a multifaceted field of investigation. It arose out of the work of the Ubiquitous Music Group (g-ubimus), a research network encompassing information-technology and music practitioners from several Brazilian universities and partners in Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, England, and Australia. The group fostered the initial activities in ubimus by establishing a yearly international event, featuring the participation of multiple researchers from both peripheral and central countries—the Ubiquitous Music Workshops (UbiMus), held in Florianópolis, Brazil (2010), Vitória, Brazil (2011 and 2013), São Paulo, Brazil (2012), Porto Alegre, Brazil (2014), Växjö, Sweden (2015), São João del Rei, Brazil (2018), Marseille, France (2019), and Porto Seguro, Brazil (2020). A horizontal dialogue has encouraged an intense exchange of ideas and expertise among all the participants. The lack of prejudices regarding the geographical and cultural origins of the proposals and a careful alignment between the research targets and the organizational decisions have become hallmarks of the encounters of the ubimus community.

The ubimus literature has been featured in the online proceedings of the Ubiquitous Music Workshops, as well as in various other publications including papers and special issues of the Journal of New Music Research (2011 and 2019), Sonic Ideas (2013), Cadernos de Informática (2014), Journal of Cases on Information Technology (2015), Vortex (2018), Journal of Digital Media and Interaction (2020). Three reference volumes have also been edited: Ubiquitous Music (Keller, Lazzarini, and Pimenta 2014a Applications of Ubiquitous Music (and Lima 2018 and Ubiquitous Music Ecologies (Lazzarini et al. 2020a).

An early definition of ubimus was given in 2014: "In practice, Ubiquitous Music is music (or musical activities) supported by ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) concepts and technology" (Keller, Lazzarini, and Pimenta 2014b p. xiii). From this quote we find that ubimus was originally developed out of the concept of ubicomp (1991 which describes computing as an all-pervasive and invisible presence in our everyday lives (Lazzarini et al. 2020b This seminal idea was extended into a research approach specifically directed at music-making. Ubimus is concerned with all the ways in which people can participate in creative musical activities. This attitude contrasts with a more conservative view of music studies (particularly those involving electronics) circumscribed to the practices of the specialists (formally or informally trained) and the professional musicians. As we entered the 21st century, the environments for musical activities were significantly expanded, blurring the lines that separate players from spectators. The paradigm of ubimus reduces the dependency on specialized training and entertains a change of attitude toward the potential venues, providing new spaces for creative performances, which include both formal venues and everyday settings. Ubimus practices also take note of the changes brought about by the global computing network in musical knowledge production, distribution, and sharing. But not all changes are positive. For instance, Lazzarini et al. state that "[t]hese changes are not limited to the application of technology or to the sonic results. They affect the whole chain of social and material relationships that permeate the musical endeavors. Therefore, these emerging cultural practices demand flexible frameworks that support rapid technical reconfigurations, while enforcing a cautious and responsible attitude towards the potential environmental and social consequences of these changes" (Lazzarini et al. 2020b, p. 1). Such concerns are at the core of several ubimus research initiatives.

In its first decade of development, the field of ubimus grew from the need to give access to creative experiences to people who were previously treated as passive consumers of musical products. Another motivation has been the creative exploration of sites and contexts that were previously inaccessible to musical practices. These two factors—stakeholders and locations—played an important role in shaping the first wave of ubimus initiatives, pushing the focus of the deployments toward two goals: erasing the barriers to music-making by newcomers and casual participants, and expanding the limits of what it means to make music.

Sonification, musification, and auditory display furnish a variety of strategies...