Theme: | Technology for Active Participation in Society (WP4 TECH-APS) |
Type: | Research |
Status: | Active |
Start Date: | 2018-07-16 |
End Date: | 2018-07-16 |
Project Leader |
Creech, Andrea |
Project Overview
This research explores the use of assistive music technology as a catalyst for creativity, collaboration and enhanced quality of later-life within assisted living communities. Previous research has attributed significant social, emotional and cognitive benefits amongst senior citizens to their involvement in musical activities. However, research that addresses age-related barriers to ‘musicking’, which include the accessibility of conventional musical instruments, is limited. Our research will thus investigate systematically the use of an innovative assistive digital music technology that may mitigate such barriers, thus maximizing the potential for access to the creative, social, psychological, and physiological benefits of musical engagement in later-life. We will focus on the Soundbeam, an assistive digital music technology that uses motion sensors to translate body movements into music and sound. Soundbeam offers a stable and versatile technological platform that enables both touch and touch-free interaction in unlimited musical styles, as well as the built-in ability to record and share musical creations online, thus further promoting social connectedness.
The feasibility of such technologies as tools to support creativity and quality of life amongst older people in assisted living contexts remains under-researched. Accordingly, we aim to improve the lives of Canadian seniors by: 1) engaging seniors in creative social practice through music and sound, by developing novel musical practices and artefacts using the Soundbeam; 2) fostering creative musical collaborations, learning and play that harness the potential of an assistive music technology within later-life contexts; and 3) exploring the feasibility of the Soundbeam as a tool that can contribute to enhanced quality of later-life. Our project will therefore make an original contribution to knowledge concerning the role of technology in creative arts-based approaches to enhancing the quality of later-life.
Outputs
Title |
Category |
Date |
Authors |
Creative Connections Through Music Making With The Soundbeam Université Laval, McGill University | Scientific Excellence - Advancing Knowledge | 2021-09-23 | Richard Barham, "Graylen Howard", Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum, Andrea Creech |
Musicking and creative music technologies for enriching later-lifeMusicking and creative music technologies for enriching later-life
Andrea Creech
Abstract
In this paper I outline the case for the power of music as a restorative activity, and focus on the potential for music technologies to enrich opportunities for wellbeing and creativity in later-life contexts. There is a small but growing body of research suggesting that older people, even those with complex needs, are capable of, and interested in using music technologies. Using some examples of practice, I will highlight the multiple and significant benefits that may be derived from receptive or active creative music-making supported by a range of music technologies, and will consider the underpinning principles that could frame the design and use of later-life creative music technologies. Speaking from the perspective of a ‘digital immigrant’ for whom digital music technologies represent a landscape that can feel unfamiliar and even bewildering, I nonetheless argue in favour of the crucial importance of exploiting opportunities to use creative digital technologies to support continued playful, exploratory, and joyful musical experience.
This Keynote contributes a novel perspective to the field of music, wellbeing, and aging, and will have significance for all those interested in the power of music in later-life contexts. The Keynote speaker, Andrea Creech, is an acknowledged international expert in the field of music, wellbeing, and aging. She is currently leading a partnership project (funded by SSHRC, partnering with Room 217 and Wilfrid Laurier Centre for Music in Community) focused on the ways in which technologies can be mobilized and exploited in such a way as to overcome barriers to musical engagement, even amongst those with complex age-related challenges. Positioned within the emergent scientific field of gerontechnology (representing the intersection between ageing and technology studies), this Keynote will highlight groundbreaking research and practice concerned with creative uses of accessible music technologies, demonstrating how such practices could be embedded in daily routines within a range of later-life contexts.
McGill University | Scientific Excellence - Advancing Knowledge | 2019-03-04 | Andrea Creech |
Using music technology creatively to enrich later-life: A literature reviewSystematic review of literature concerned with using technology to support musical engagement among older adults:
Creech, A. (2019). Using music technology creatively to enrich later-life: A literature review. Frontiers iPsychology - Performance Science ( 30 January 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00117). doi:DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00117
McGill University | Scientific Excellence - Advancing Knowledge | 2019-03-03 | Andrea Creech |
Mapping the Musical LifecourseInternational expert seminar and networking event McGill University, Université Laval | Scientific Excellence - Advancing Knowledge | 2018-09-20 | Andrea Creech, Keven Larouche, David Fortier, Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum |
Music and Ageing Network: Music Care, Health and Wellness for Seniors A new national working group - Music Care Network exists to integrate our initial ruminations, research and vision into a solid plan including how we structure ourselves, as a network and what work we will engage in together and apart to advance our practices and policy. Université Laval, McGill University | Networking and Partnerships | 2019-03-22 | Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum, Andrea Creech |
Aging creatively with musicWebinar: part of the Room 217 Music Care webinar series
Archived here: https://www.room217.ca/aging
McGill University | KTEE - Knowledge Mobilization | 2018-10-10 | Andrea Creech |
Learning and participation in music across the adult lifecourse: the role of higher educationWebinar for the Global Leaders programme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo1TJ1JOPO0&feature=youtu.be
McGill University | KTEE - Knowledge Mobilization | 2019-03-04 | Andrea Creech |