Abstract:

This paper presents a Case Study on interactive musical technology and discusses how it enhances the Creative Empowerment gained through the proprioception awareness of the participants within an interactive environment. We propose the concepts of Creative Empowerment (CE) and Sensorimotor Maps (SM) (Partesotti, 2016) in order to explain this thesis. Our viewpoint is that this kind of technology could be applied both in the therapeutic and educative environment and it would bring benefits in the learning process of people of any age and gender.

In recent literature studies shown the effectiveness of the technological environment applied to educational and therapeutic setting (Camurri et al., 2010, Kontogeorgakopoulos, Wechsler & Keay-Bright 2013, Peñalba, 2015). Digital Musical Interfaces (DMIs) are instruments designed for various contexts, in particular for musical and artistic applications, and can be used by non-experts and experts (Miranda & Wanderley, 2006). Our study also connects the DMI technology to the Mixed Interactive Reality (MIR) (Partesotti, 2016), which is based on the proprioceptive interaction of the user and that integrates diverse perceptual modalities (2016).

The Case Study uses e-mocomu (e-motion, colors and music), a prototype technology developed to enable users to control sounds and colors by means of their movements, and which integrates diverse perceptual modalities that permits their creative expression. The technology has been applied to a case study showing the potentialities that this interactive instrument offers within the learning filed. Furthermore taking into account concepts for the Sensorimotor Contingency Theory (Nöe & O’Regan, 2000) and the MIR technology, the Case Study verifies how e-mocomu might integrate the following sensorimotor contingencies: visual, auditory and proprioceptive.

The Case Study engaged 17 participants. Each participant followed a set of tasks for gestural and audio-visual analysis, and eventually improvised with e-mocomu for an undetermined time. Every performance was videotaped; furthermore we gathered the length and the acceleration of users’ movements in time, during their improvisation session in order to track their SM and their EC. Before and after the test we collected additional information with the SAM test (Self-Assessment Manikin) (Lang, 1980) in order to assess a former emotional evaluation. We compare participant’s Arousal and Valence to data from their performances: time of the improvisation sessions, acceleration curves and analysis of their movements based on the video annotations
The results outline a change both in arousal and in valence. In particular a correlation between the change in valence and the duration in time of the users’ performance was found.

As the results have shown, the duration of the creative performance is connected to the CE. Hence, the case study highlights how a MIR technology that arouses the CE, gained through a proprioceptive awareness, would bound to benefit the learning process of the participant both in education and in a motor rehabilitation context

Keywords:

Creative Empowerment, Sensorimotor Maps, proprioception, learning, MIR technology.