Interaction in creative tasks: ideation, representation and evaluation in composition

The design of tools for creative activities affects the creative processes and output of users. In this paper we consider how an understanding of creative interaction can inform the design of support tools in a creative domain, and where creative needs cross domain boundaries. Using observations of musical composers we analyse the theoretical approaches to understanding creativity and their use to HCI. Cycles of ideation and evaluation are suggested as atomic elements of creative interactions, with the representation of ideas a central activity for individual and collaborating composers. A model of collaborative composition was developed, along with an analysis of the representational types used in the domain. This led to the design and evaluation of a prototype Sonic Sketchpad for musical idea representation

Developing a creative foreign language reader: in search of a theoretical approach and didactic techniques

The paper discusses different conceptions of creativity in relation to reading in a FL. It looks at psycholinguistic approaches that view creativity as a mentalistic individual creative thought. Further, it discusses sociocultural theories that take in account social, cultural and environmental factors. Special attention is given to a critical aspect of creativity. In the next section, the author looks at how psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches view literacy and what they can offer for both FL/L2 research and pedagogy. The presentation argues for viewing the FL/L2 reading situation as an interaction of cognitive and social factors and emphases the importance of developing skills to critique texts. It suggests a set of tasks to be applied in a FL classroom aiming at improving creative reading skills

The effect of creative problem solving with the intervention social skills on the performance of creative tasks

This research aims to determine the social skills intervention with the student’s ability to solve problems creatively towards understanding the concepts and procedures: the objectives of learning. A quasi-experimental research design was used to see the interaction between attitudes and treatments. The research sample was students who took computer courses in reality-based laboratories in vocational schools. Data analysis was performed using descriptive analysis techniques and inferential statistical multivariate analysis of variance two paths. Creative problem solving is intervened by a background in social skills to understand concepts and procedures. Social skills have a greater influence on the creative process. This can be seen when giving creative problem-solving tasks. The abilities they have, about; readiness to learn, the ability to understand one’s own needs, and the ability to understand one’s own learning style, greatly support the performance of their creative assignments. At the same time, external factors have less influence on the performance of creative tasks. These external factors are influenced by the class social environment, group formation, and class management. Students who have high social skills find it easier to complete creative tasks, and students who have low social skills have problems adapting and adjusting to the learning process

Ideation as an intellectual information acquisition and use context: Investigating game designers’ information-based ideation behavior

Human Information Behavior (HIB) research commonly examines behavior in the context of why information is acquired and how it will be used, but usually at the level of the work or everyday-life tasks the information will support. HIB has not been examined in detail at the broader contextual level of intellectual purpose (i.e. the higher-order conceptual tasks the information was acquired to support). Examination at this level can enhance holistic understanding of HIB as a ‘means to an intellectual end’ and inform the design of digital information environments that support information interaction for specific intellectual purposes. We investigate information-based ideation (IBI) as a specific intellectual information acquisition and use context by conducting Critical Incident-style interviews with ten game designers, focusing on how they interact with information to generate and develop creative design ideas. Our findings give rise to a framework of their ideation-focused HIB, which systems designers can leverage to reason about how best to support certain behaviors to drive design ideation. These findings emphasize the importance of intellectual purpose as a driver for acquisition and desired outcome of use

How do financial constraints affect creativity?

This paper investigates the effects of financial constraints on the outcome of different types of creative tasks such as product ideation and product repair. Four experimental studies examine the effect of financial constraints on creativity of the outcome of a product ideation task, and compare the effect of financial constraints with the effect of another type of constraint (i.e., input restrictions) on creativity of products ideated and on the amount of resources invested in the development of the creative solution. Furthermore, these studies explore the type of creative process ignited by financial constraints and analyze the effect of financial constraints in interaction with an individual difference such as novelty seeking, which embraces more remote determinants of creative performance, on the creativity of the outcomes to a product ideation task, as well as on the creativity of the outcomes to a more constrained task such as repairing an existing product. The results suggest that constrained financial resources may be beneficial to creativity. Financial constraints lead to the ideation of more creative products. Yet these products are generated using fewer inputs and a lower budget than products generated in an unconstrained condition. Furthermore, while yielding outcomes as creative as the ones generated under input constraints, financial constraints induce a parsimonious mindset reflected in the use of less costly resources. More interestingly, financial constraints activate a top-down rather than a bottom-up processing strategy in approaching the creative task. Finally, the results show that the effect of financial constraints is stronger for individuals with inherent tendencies toward novelty seeking, because their stock of experiences and perspectives puts them under stress when facing an unconstrained problem space. This interaction effect holds not only for product ideation tasks, but also when the problem space is already constrained in nature, as in the case of repairing a product. These findings, which are quite counterintuitive from the perspective of classic new product development literature, suggest that, at least under certain conditions, the use of financial constraints might constitute a promising approach to foster new ideas' generation, one that leads to more creative outcomes despite using less costly inputs. In addition, our results suggest that, when dealing with a creative task, companies should modulate the adoption of this kind of constraint on the individual characteristics of their employees, specifically on their innate tendency to seek novelty

Designing relational pedagogies with jam2jamXO

This paper examines the affordances of the philosophy and practice of open source and the application of it in developing music education software. In particular I will examine the parallels inherent in the ‘openness’ of pragmatist philosophy in education (Dewey 1916, 1989) such as group or collaborative learning, discovery learning (Bruner 1966) and learning through creative activity with computers (Papert 1980, 1994). Primarily I am interested in ‘relational pedagogies’ (Ruthmann and Dillon In Press) which is in a real sense about the ethics of the transaction between student and teacher in an ecology where technology plays a more significant role. In these contexts relational pedagogies refers to how the music teacher manages their relationships with students and evaluates the affordances of open source technology in that process. It is concerned directly with how the relationship between student and teacher is affected by the technological tools, as is the capacity for music making and learning. In particular technologies that have agency present the opportunity for a partnership between user and technology that enhances the capacity for expressive music making, productive social interaction and learning. In this instance technologies with agency are defined as ones that enhance the capacity to be expressive and perform tasks with virtuosity and complexity where the technology translates simple commands and gestures into complex outcomes. The technology enacts a partnership with the user that becomes both a cognitive and performative amplifier. Specifically we have used this term to describe interactions with generative technologies that use procedural invention as a creative technique to produce music and visual media

Structured Generation and Exploration of Design Space with Large Language Models for Human-AI Co-Creation

Thanks to their generative capabilities, large language models (LLMs) have become an invaluable tool for creative processes. These models have the capacity to produce hundreds and thousands of visual and textual outputs, offering abundant inspiration for creative endeavors. But are we harnessing their full potential? We argue that current interaction paradigms fall short, guiding users towards rapid convergence on a limited set of ideas, rather than empowering them to explore the vast latent design space in generative models. To address this limitation, we propose a framework that facilitates the structured generation of design space in which users can seamlessly explore, evaluate, and synthesize a multitude of responses. We demonstrate the feasibility and usefulness of this framework through the design and development of an interactive system, Luminate, and a user study with 8 professional writers. Our work advances how we interact with LLMs for creative tasks, introducing a way to harness the creative potential of LLMs

Deconstructing Engagement: A First Generation Report on the ArtsSmarts Student Engagement Questionnaire

During the school year 2006-2007, ArtsSmarts representatives collaborated with Karen Hume to design a questionnaire to measure students' engagement before and after ArtsSmarts programs. The questionnaire was administered to a large number of students who were being taught by an ArtsSmarts team comprised of an artist and a teacher. ArtsSmarts uses an innovative approach to arts integration, by allowing the self construction of programming in classrooms; and by acting as a facilitator in providing resources for artists and teachers teams develop programming for students in their classrooms. This programming develops a context where student learning and engagement in tasks and activities can take place. ArtsSmarts does not dictate this creative process; rather, it plays a supportive role in acting as a reference point for the teacher-artist teams to rely on. This approach not only allows for the innovation to evolve organically from the generation of the artist-teacher teams to student interaction, but also excites the creative learning process within the classroom. This report is a summary of the results from this first administration of the ArtsSmarts Student Engagement Questionnaire (i.e., first generation). The overall purpose of this report is firstly to examine student engagement, and secondly to examine the quality of the questionnaire, for further refinements. This report has three areas of focus: 1. To summarize the responses of students who completed the questionnaire.2. To compare student engagement before and after intervention.3. To identify strengths and weakness in the questionnaire for further revisions