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The ecological approach to music composition integrates models of environmental sound classes with social and cultural elements that contextualize a musical work. Epistemologically, this approach treats compositional activity as a dynamic process, in which materials determine techniques, and techniques enhance the available sound palette. The sounds used and the formal processes that define a piece are in a state of constant flux. This method can be compared to the dynamics of individual-environment interaction [1], which both constrain the way we perceive music and environmental sounds [2] and lead us to develop forms of sonic organization that are directly related to our everyday life.Computer-based compositional work, as originally proposed by L.A. Hiller and L.M. Isaacson [3], Iannis Xenakis [4] and other composers, provides the technical basis for integrating sound models with existing compositional tools. Xenakis laid out an approach to composition that let one equate sonic elements to data structures and the transformation of material to the use of algorithmic functions. Thus, Xenakis described composing as a three-stage process: (1) First, define variables; (2) Then parse the time axis to establish a temporal structure for the piece; (3) Finally, compose, by implementing functions that control the relationship between sonic variables and temporal structures.Although this schematic of composition is generally valid, the development of computer and electroacoustic music during the second half of the twentieth century has shown that sonic parameters cannot exist in a formal space devoid of context. Listening processes are constrained by their temporal and spectral resolution. Our hearing system parses or groups sound elements to form higher-level percepts such as streams and textures [5,6] in a context-dependent manner.In fact, music listening is deeply influenced by the individual's cultural background and by the music's social function within a specific community [7]. In addition, music and sound-making influence the way listeners relate to their environment and perceive their sonic world. Taking these observations one step further, J. Attali [8] suggests that music and sound not only modify the environment, but also shape social dynamics.From a compositional standpoint, the relationship between music and environment has been extensively explored by a group of soundscape composers in Vancouver [9-11]. As stated by B. Truax [12], soundscape composition involves (1) the listener's recognition of the source material; (2) the listener's experience of the material to complete the music's network of meanings; (3) the composer's knowledge of the material as a way of shaping the composition; and finally (4) the enhancement and transformation of our worldview and perceptual habits.Soundscape studies indicate that music-making is constrained by its social context even as it reshapes that context. Regarding the importance of listener-environment interaction, this view relates closely to the ecological approach. Ecolo...

Instrumentally oriented and individualistic approaches dominate the current perspectives on musical interaction and technologically oriented composition. A view that focuses on the broad aspects of creativity support is proposed as a viable theoretical and methodological alternative: ubiquitous music practice. This article summarises several findings in ubiquitous music research, pointing to new theoretical frameworks that tackle the volatile and distributed creativity factors involved in musical activities that take place outside of traditional venues, involving the audience as an active creative partner. A new definition of ubiquitous music is proposed encompassing four components related to the human and the material resources, the emergent properties of musical activities and the design strategies involved in supporting distributed decision making. We highlight the application of embedded-embodied cognition in creative practice, arguing for the adoption of an ecologically grounded framework as an alternative to the mainstream anthropocentric and disembodied acoustic-instrumental paradigms. We discuss the relevance of the new materialist concepts of ecologies and meshworks within artistic creative practice, highlighting the implications of the emergent creativity support methods for context-based composition.

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This study is among the first that attempt to define a methodology for creativity-centred software design in educational contexts, more specifically for musical activities in ubiquitous settings. We propose and apply a set of design techniques – the Ubimus Planning and the Ubimus Design protocols – as alternatives to experimental procedures that leave out relevant aspects of social and procedural dimensions in educational research. Two workshops were conducted to assess both technological and domain-specific requirements for support of creative musical activities. The first workshop was conducted with music teachers and school teachers that had no formal musical training. The objective of this workshop was to assess domain-specific requirements for musical creative activities by educational staff. The second workshop focused on technological support for tool development by non-musicians. This workshop yielded two software projects that involved user evaluations of creative processes. Participants in t e corresponding user studies included both musicians and non-musicians. The Ubimus Planning protocol served to raise important questions regarding technological usage by musicians and naive subjects in educational contexts. Non-technical approaches, such as those proposed by traditional soundscape activities, may not be suited for introducing non-musicians to sonic composition. Naive subjects may respond better to technologically based approaches, such as those used in ecocomposition.The Ubimus Design approach proved to be effective to test the usability of musical tools at early stages of development. Prototypes were implemented and usability studies were carried out by undergraduate IT students within a three-week time slot. Sharp differences were observed in the type of requirements expressed by musicians and non-musicians regarding creativity support tools. Nevertheless, both groups of subjects assessed the use of software prototypes within exploratory musical activities as being fun and expressive.