Musicking is an important an intruiging part of daily life and human history. Socio-technological developments of the last two centuries have altered music, slowly corrupting it. What does musicking look like when freed from ideals of efficiency, extraction and individualism. How can we imagine musicking futures that are centred around community, mental health, living well together?
I approach these complex topics with a research through design project, employing participatory design and provoking experiments to let thoughts flow and behaviours unfold. This resulted in three imaginaries, told through an immersive audioplay (above).
Societal context
Beyond helping my fellow musicians to have a great time, this project intended to shift the narrative on how making music happens in current society.
Against the background of rising tension around streaming services, and longer standing injustices in the music industry, I wanted to explore what music can be for humanity otherwise.
How might we design for music in a local, small scale? How might we reclaim musicking as something that is simply human behaviour, instead of a commoditty to profit off?
Fieldwork
This project happened as a situated involvement with the local music community in Umeå.
By visiting events, reaching out and building relationships I was able to get a clear picture of what small, collective musicking means in Umeå.
Further workshops and interviews with the people shed more light on their current practice and the futures they might envision for it.
Songwriting Laboratory
Following some ideation on how to stimulate ways of collaboration and participation in music, I went to test some of these ideas workshops with musicians and non-musicians. I confirned that semi-anonymous collaboration leads to extremely interesting results, and that it activated musicians, sparking curiosity. Furthermore I got an insight into what is needed to stimulate non-musicians to start taking part.
Design jamming.First of many ocarina jams.Songwriting with zero experience.
The anti-business model
From my post-progress apporach emerged an important question; what does design look like when unconstrained by capitalism? What methods to we use to ideate services and social systems? Can these methods unlock thought that does not revolve around making money? To poke at this conundrum I developed several versions of the Anti-Business-Model Canvas in my co-design workshops. For this framework I critically looked at the classic Business Model Canvas and reorganised thecetegories it to fit a non-exploitative model.
the Eternal Music Room
What if there was a room, filled with musical instruments, where a loop plays continuously, and anyone can come in and paly a new layer over the loop? What happens? What kind of music emerges? How does it make people feel? I tested and developed this idea with musicians and non-musicians at UID.
A triptych of post-progress musicking futures
Throughout my research I caught glimpses of how things could be different; in the way people spoke to me, in the things that emerged during workshops, and in the moments in between. Through a triptych of post-progress musicking futures I want to show imaginations of how alternative worlds of musicking could be. Alongside a storied audio-play of these futures exist additional graphic material.
Alternative timelines, intersecting in the now, but rooting in different histories and sprouting in different futures.
the BeeSide
In a future, the music community of Umeå uses the BeeSide for their daily musicking practices. The BeeSide is a local decentralised online platform for open source collaborative songwriting, jam planning and streaming. Using this platform, musicians are able to write innovative grooves and plan jams to record these tunes. The ultimate goal of the platform is to use the power of music to let people meet, truly connect and create an upwards spiral of engagement, fostering a tight community of musicians and listeners. It is a road to the reclamation of musicking by the people; an emancipation from streaming services, towards a commons of musicking.
This future actually turned into a more detailed digital design case study.
In another future, the Umeans have resorted to the use of the Oyster Rooms as a way to connect with neighbours, and, over time, ancestors. Motivated by the desire to always have places to music with others and maintain mental wellbeing, they establish a network of small rooms that are filled with musical instruments and run by a single Oysterbox. These boxes play one long layered loop of music, over and over, and allow people to record new takes using the material in the room. Visitors come to bathe in the complex cacophonies, play along and add something of themselves to this ever growing stack of expression. It becomes a ritual for some, and an occasional resort for others. Over time, each of the rooms develops a signature sound and corresponding emotion. There is the Rage Room in the city centre, a Love Lobby in Umedalen, and a Serenity Suite by the river.
The Nightingale Society
In a far future, music has become the primary way of being social for all Umeans. They have resorted to the use of the humble Ocarina in order to make music anywhere, anytime. To ensure a healthy, accessible and inclusive commons of musicking, the Nightingale society governs musicking activities and materials. Their day to day consists mainly of making Ocarinas for everyone in the city, from clay sourced from a glacial deposit in Hörnefors. They also keep a grand library of tunes and theory at their clay studio. But their most important task is ensuring that music is a welcoming space for everyone to parttake in, by incessantly inviting anyone to join and simply play.
A variety of ocarinas.A walk becomes musical and social.
Clay is sourced from a local glacial deposit.
Engaging the public
The goal of the project is to open up thought about the role of music in society through experiential futures. The project was presented though an exhibition that told a cohesive story through an audioplay, poster and three future artifacts.
