Briefing

The music industry - like many other areas of our lives - has been greatly affected by technological innovations for many decades. Tape and vinyl were replaced by the brief interlude of the cassette until the CD asserted itself as the new top dog in the music market. Then things got turbulent again. Napster and other music file sharing services ruined the market, Apple responded with the music download platform iTunes, until finally the streaming services asserted themselves, which have dominated the music industry ever since. What will come next? What impact will artificial intelligence, changing lifestyles and social media have on the music industry in the future? How will we create, consume, experience music?

In this course, students learn how to methodically design and reflect on future scenarios. The focus is on trying out new methods from futures studies and speculative design. The topic “Futures of Music” serves to apply the learned methods in a concrete context and to better internalise them. In addition, the students reflect on »Design Futuring« as a potential field of action for designers.

Students were asked to work both in groups and individually. The engagement with the methods and the topic could be expressed through a variety of forms that the students could choose themselves, e.g. sketches, descriptions, visualisations of future artefacts, products, services, etc. that can make the yet to unfold possibles futures tangible in narrative and scenarios.