Socio-materiality of online music ensembles: An analysis based on cultural artifacts & affordances

The paper builds on practice-based theories and cyber-archaeology to establish an analytical lens for understanding socio-material aspects of online music ensembles. The domain of investigation is music notation lessons (MNLs) as conducted using the DIAMOUSES system. The proposed practice-based framework rests on two notions - cultural artifacts of practice and quality attributes designating design affordances. These constructs are used to guide an interviewing strategy for gaining detailed insights into MNLs. It turns out that the availability of cultural participants for interviewing - which is not possible in traditional archaeological inquiries - augments the explanatory value of virtual excavations and yields a wealth of supplementary data. This is demonstrated using a concrete case study focusing on what members are actually doing as well as how their social encounters are revived as virtual tells of the online ensemble. Finally, the empirical evidence is used to anchor on-going design work in collaborative music making scenarios.