Article

Supporting musical composition by externalizing the composer's mental space

Authors:

Shigeki Amitani,

Koichi HoriAuthors Info & Claims

C&C '02: Proceedings of the 4th conference on Creativity & cognition

Pages 165 - 172

https://doi.org/10.1145/581710.581735

Published: 13 October 2002 Publication History

Abstract

In the field of design and creativity support, "externalization of mental space" has been recognized as an important challenge. In this paper, we tackle this challenge on musical composition, which is one of the important human creative activities. In our research, we focus on the analysis of cognitive processes in musical composition. That is, we analyze what the cognitive processes in musical composition are like and how the process is affected when a representation of information is changed. For this research, we propose a musical composition supporting system named "MACSS (MAcroscopic Composition Supporting System)" which offers a spatial representation of music to a composer to support his/her composition process. Comparing with ordinary musical editors, which give chronological (1-dimensional, score-metaphored) representation, this system provides a macroscopic view by locating phrases on the 2-dimensional space. We have investigated how the cognitive process changes when the spatial representation is introduced, i.e., the representation of information is changed. Moreover, we have analyzed the observed change microscopically, especially the processes of "mental fixation" and "mental leap". We have found how the spatial representation triggers mental leap escaping from mental fixation in musical composition.

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Cited By

Mavri AIoannou ALoizides F(2020)The Assessment Scale for Creative Collaboration (ASCC) Validation and Reliability StudyInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2019.1709338(1-14)Online publication date: 6-Jan-2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2019.1709338
Garcia JTsandilas TAgon CMackay WWakkary RHarrison SNeustaedter CBardzell SPaulos E(2014)Structured observation with polyphonyProceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems10.1145/2598510.2598512(199-208)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2598510.2598512
Cockbain JVertolli MDavies J(2013)Creative Imagination is Stable Across Technological Media: The Spore Creature Creator Versus Pencil and PaperThe Journal of Creative Behavior10.1002/jocb.3848:1(13-24)Online publication date: 23-Dec-2013
https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.38
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Index Terms

Supporting musical composition by externalizing the composer's mental space
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

C&C '02: Proceedings of the 4th conference on Creativity & cognition

October 2002

212 pages

ISBN:1581134657

DOI:10.1145/581710

General Chairs:
Ernest Edmonds
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
,
Linda Candy
Loughborough University, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Terence Kavanagh
Loughborough University, UK
,
Tom Hewett
Drexel University

Copyright © 2002 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 13 October 2002

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C&C02: Creativity and Cognition 2002

October 13 - 16, 2002

Loughborough, UK

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Overall Acceptance Rate 108 of 371 submissions, 29%

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Cited By

Mavri AIoannou ALoizides F(2020)The Assessment Scale for Creative Collaboration (ASCC) Validation and Reliability StudyInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2019.1709338(1-14)Online publication date: 6-Jan-2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2019.1709338
Garcia JTsandilas TAgon CMackay WWakkary RHarrison SNeustaedter CBardzell SPaulos E(2014)Structured observation with polyphonyProceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems10.1145/2598510.2598512(199-208)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2598510.2598512
Cockbain JVertolli MDavies J(2013)Creative Imagination is Stable Across Technological Media: The Spore Creature Creator Versus Pencil and PaperThe Journal of Creative Behavior10.1002/jocb.3848:1(13-24)Online publication date: 23-Dec-2013
https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.38
Tsandilas TLetondal CMackay WOlsen DArthur RHinckley KMorris MHudson SGreenberg S(2009)MusinkProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1518701.1518827(819-828)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1518701.1518827
Farooq U(2006)Eureka! past, present, and future of creativity research in HCIXRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students10.1145/1144366.114437412:3(8-8)Online publication date: 1-May-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1144366.1144374
Coughlan TJohnson P(2006)Interaction in creative tasksProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/1124772.1124854(531-540)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2006
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1124772.1124854
Farooq U(2005)Eureka! past, present, and future of creativity research in HCIXRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students10.1145/1144375.114438112:2(6-6)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1144375.1144381
Amitani SEdmonds EEdmonds ECandy LBrown PHewett TJefferies J(2005)Knowledge nebula crystallizer for time-based informationProceedings of the 5th conference on Creativity & cognition10.1145/1056224.1056256(218-221)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1056224.1056256
Hoorn Fvan der Veer G(2005)Process polyphoniaCognition, Technology and Work10.1007/s10111-004-0170-27:1(3-4)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2005
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10111-004-0170-2

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