The Internet of Musical Stuff: Towards an Aesthetically Pliable Musical Internet

A recent initiative within ubimus research contemplates the development of an internet of musical stuff (IoMuSt) as a concept that interacts with and expands the pre-existing rubric of the internet of musical things (IoMusT). Opposed to the ontological fixedness of things, stuff is pliable, fairly amorphous, changeable depending on usage, context-reliant, either persistent or volatile. It encompasses adaptable and flexible temporalities, featuring non-allotable, non-monetisable and non-reifiable resources. Furthermore, IoMuSt highlights the distinction between object and subject, blurring this crisp separation. The IoMuSt rubric is sustained by aesthetic pliability, fostering an expansion of creative practices and a critical stance towards utilitarian human-computer interaction perspectives. The authors discuss key dimensions of aesthetic pliability as related to flexible infrastructures, open sources and methods, enhanced collaboration and a low ecological footprint. The properties of aesthetic pliability are explored within the realm of two case studies.