Creative arts engagement has been shown to be related to maintaining wellbeing in older adulthood (Tymoszuk et al., 2019). For people living with dementia, music can be engaging and rewarding (Baird & Thompson, 2018), and is often presented as a therapeutic activity. It is theorised that music’s capacity to effect change is due to its engaging, emotional, physical, personal, social and persuasive qualities (Brancatisano et al., 2020). However, music itself is a complex intervention (Loui, 2020) and the ‘creative’ in music activities in the small number of studies with people living with dementia is rarely described or critiqued (Creech et al., 2020). Music is often described as passive (receptive)/active to reflect different listening or playing activities. Only a few studies detail opportunities for people living with dementia to exercise creativity (e.g. Zeilig et al., 2019).Technology to assist these musical interactions in dementia falls under distinct categories of listening to music, or playing music, with very little afforded in the way of agency, choice or control (MacRitchie et al., 2023). A few possible explanations could be: i) the musical activity is valued in terms of pre/post cognitive or social changes (Kontos & Grigorovich, 2018) i.e., the activity itself is not particularly critiqued, ii) creativity is assumed to be embedded in the activity and does not need to be enhanced or supported, iii) the locus of creativity is in cognitive processes occurring in the brain, so people living with dementia are often ascribed a passive role in creative musical interactions (Zeilig et al., 2019). We propose a new way of thinking about musical interactions for people living with dementia, building from the enactive, embodied experience of music (Schiavio et al., 2022), and considering a more relational view. Leaving aside the framing where the person with dementia is limited in what creativity they can offer, we propose instead a framework of design where subtle acts of agency and (mini-C) creativity are afforded, supporting a myriad of musical interactions that sit between listening and performing.
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A musical improvisation inspired by a beautifulsummer day or by a song by Elvis; for patientsadmitted in hospital for an operation, music canhave healing powers. With the research projectMeaningful Music in Health Care (MiMiC), thattook place from autumn 2015 until 2018, the researchgroup Lifelong Learning in Music (LLM), togetherwith the department of surgery of the UniversityMedical Center Groningen (UMCG), researched thepractice of live music for hospital patients and theirhealth care professionals. For the research groupLifelong Learning in Music the focus of the researchwas on the meaning of this musical practice formusicians and health care professionals, and onthe development of this practice.The research of UMCG concentrated on the effectsof live music on the recovery and wellbeing of patients
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AI tools increasingly shape how we discover, make and experience music. While these tools can have the potential to empower creativity, they may fundamentally redefine relationships between stakeholders, to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. In this position paper, we argue that these tools will fundamentally reshape our music culture, with profound effects (for better and for worse) on creators, consumers and the commercial enterprises that often connect them. By paying careful attention to emerging Music AI technologies and developments in other creative domains and understanding the implications, people working in this space could decrease the possible negative impacts on the practice, consumption and meaning of music. Given that many of these technologies are already available, there is some urgency in conducting analyses of these technologies now. It is important that people developing and working with these tools address these issues now to help guide their evolution to be equitable and empower creativity. We identify some potential risks and opportunities associated with existing and forthcoming AI tools for music, though more work is needed to identify concrete actions which leverage the opportunities while mitigating risks.
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The findings suggests that participation in music practices can significantly support caregivers' and nurses' contact with the people to whom they give care and the healthcare professionals' insights into the patients' and residents' personhood. Music can create experienced changes in the care environment through kairotic moments of connectivity and intimacy of the musical interaction. The music sessions support and reinforce the person-centred values of care delivery.The meaning of participatory music practices for the well-being and learning of healthcare professionals working with ageing patients and nursing home residents.
In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking within the (elderly) health care sector is growing, the work can be considered relatively new. In terms of research, multiple studies have sought to understand the impact of such work on musicians and participants, however little is known about what underpins the musicians’ actions in these settings. With this study, I sought to address this gap by investigating professional musicians’ emerging practices when devising co-creative musicking with elderly people. Three broad concepts were used as a theoretical background to the study: Theory of Practice, co-creative musicking, and Praxialism. Firstly, I used Theory of Practice to help understand the nature of emerging practices in a wider context of change in the field of music and habitus of musicians and participants. Theory of Practice enabled me to consider a practice as “a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion, and motivational knowledge” (Reckwitz, 2002, p. 249). Secondly, I drew the knowledge from co-creative musicking, which is a concept I gathered from two existing concepts: co-creation and musicking. Musicking (Small, 1998), which considers music as something we do (including any mode of engagement with music), provided a holistic and inclusive way of looking at participation in music-making. The co-creation paradigm encompasses a view on enterprise that consists of bringing together parties to jointly create an outcome that is meaningful to all (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014). The concept served as a lens to specify the jointness of the musicking and challenge issues of power in the engagement of participants in the creative-productive process. Thirdly, Praxialism considers musicking as an activity that encompasses “musical doers, musical doing, something done and contexts in which the former take place” (Elliott, 1995). Praxialism sets out a vision on music that goes beyond the musical work and includes the meanings and values of those involved (Silverman, Davis & Elliott, 2014). The concept allowed me to examine the work and emerging relationships as a result of devising co-creative musicking from an ethical perspective. Given the subject’s relative newness and rather unexplored status, I examined existing work empirically through an ethnographic approach (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Four cases were selected where data was gathered through episodic interviewing (Flick, 2009) and participant observation. Elements of a constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) were used for performing an abductive analysis. The analysis included initial coding, focused coding, the use of sensitizing concepts (Blumer 1969 in Hammersley, 2013) and memoing. I wrote a thick description (Geertz, 1973) for each case portraying the work from my personal experience. The descriptions are included in the dissertation as one separate chapter and foreshadow the exposition of the analysis in a next chapter. In-depth study of the creative-productive processes of the cases showed the involvement of multiple co-creative elements, such as a dialogical interaction between musicians and audience. However, participants’ contributions were often adopted implicitly, through the musicians interpreting behaviour and situations. This created a particular power dynamic and challenges as to what extent the negotiation can be considered co-creative. The implicitness of ‘making use’ of another person’s behaviour with the other not (always) being aware of this also triggered an ethical perspective, especially because some of the cases involved participants that were vulnerable. The imbalance in power made me examine the relationship that emerges between musicians and participants. As a result of a closer contact in the co-creative negotiation, I witnessed a contact of a highly personal, sometimes intimate, nature. I recognized elements of two types of connections. One type could be called ‘humanistic’, as a friendship in which there is reciprocal care and interest for the other. The other could be seen as ‘functional’, which means that the relationship is used as a resource for providing input for the creative musicking process. From this angle, I have compared the relationship with that of a relationship of an artist with a muse. After having examined the co-creative and relational sides of the interaction in the four cases, I tuned in to the musicians’ contribution to these processes and relationships. I discovered that their devising in practice consisted of a continuous double balancing act on two axes: one axis considers the other and oneself as its two ends. Another axis concerns the preparedness and unpredictability at its ends. Situated at the intersection of the two axes are the musicians’ intentionality, which is fed by their intentions, values and ethics. The implicitness of the co-creation, the two-sided relationship, the potential vulnerability of participants, and the musicians’ freedom in navigating and negotiation, together, make the devising of co-creative musicking with elderly people an activity that involves ethical challenges that are centred around a tension between prioritizing doing good for the other, associated with a eudaimonic intention, and prioritizing values of the musical art form, resembling a musicianist intention. The results therefore call for a musicianship that involves acting reflectively from an ethical perspective. Doctoral study by Karolien Dons
Following the Samen met Muziek pilot research project in 2023-2024 in ZINN Zorg Short Stay rehabilitation departments in the locations De Brink and De Dilgt, REVA BEATS is a co-research project between the research group Music in Context and ZINN Zorg Short Stay departments revalidation of the location De Brink. In this mixed methods research, multiple research foci included: 1) aspects of care innovation and impact measurements will be researched by ZINN Zorg, and 2) aspects of musical expression, communication and wellbeing of musicians and participants, the entrepreneurial skills and development of musicians, and the learning and experiencing of collaborating care professionals will be explored by research group Music in Context. Additionally, there is a PhD-fellow from the HKU researching the practice through the lens of care ethics. The REVA BEATS project will run between February 2025-January 2027, and includes in total 12 music projects, while the preparational work of the projects has started in June 2024.
