"Musical co-creation"? Exploring health-promoting potentials on the use of musical and interactive tangibles for families with children with disabilities

Abstract

The point of departure in this text is the ongoing qualitative interdisciplinary research project RHYME (www.RHYME.no), which addresses the lack of health-promoting interactive and musical Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for families with children with severe disabilities. The project explores a new treatment paradigm based on collaborative, tangible, interactive net-based musical "smart things" with multimedia capabilities. The goal in RHYME is twofold: (1) to reduce isolation and passivity, and (2) to promote health and well-being. Co-creation is suggested as a possible path to achieving these goals, by evoking feelings, for example, or accommodating the needs to act and to create social relations; co-creation also motivates users to communicate and collaborate within (new) social relations. This article engages co-creation by incorporating aspects connected to interaction design and the field of music and health. Empirical observations will be referred to. The research question is as follows: What might co-creation imply for families of children with disabilities when musical and interactive tangibles are used as health-promoting implements?