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In this paper we propose aesthetic heuristics as an area of study within ubiquitous music research.
Initially we discuss the motivations for narrowing the focus of the experimental variables involved
in creativity-centred design studies. Then we place aesthetic heuristics within the current efforts
toward designs for creativity support, highlighting recent studies that target everyday musical
creativity. The reviewed experimental results point to a gap between the current theoretical
proposals in musical creativity and the factors that impact everyday musical activities. Self-
referentiality of the experimental-theoretical construct and early domain restriction are two of the
limitations pointed out by previous theoretical work. We provide a working definition of aesthetic
heuristics, indicating its object of study and its rationale. We also lay out initial experimental
strategies. Potential contributions from interaction aesthetics and ubimus research are discussed,
introducing the concept of creative bias and a set of experimental hypotheses. The last section of
the paper furnishes examples of creative biases within the context of musical interaction design.
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Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus
Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
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Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus
Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
been used in other fields, lifting the requirements of Items 2 and 6a, 6c, 6e call for explicit formulations
making decisions under pressure and generalizing of specific epistemic targets as the first stage of the
the concept to “creative decision helpers.” creative activity. Thus, they can be classified as
Amabile's (1996) distinction between formalized problem-solving activities that can be tackled
thought and heuristic procedures traces a line through formalized procedures. The other
between computationally oriented perspectives on heuristics apply a diversified set of strategies to
creativity and decision-making in everyday deal with unknowns. Both exploratory (1, 5c, 6d) –
contexts. But recent research on computational involving increasing the unstructured knowledge of
creative methods has incorporated unstructured the available resources – and combinatorial-
techniques to target activities that rely on resources analytical strategies (2, 6a, 6c, 6d) – focused on
that become available during the creative act. structured knowledge of the resources – are
While computational intelligence relies on usually employed. In line with Stein's (1953)
knowledge representation and formalized proposal, some strategies target the settings (5a)
reasoning, idea processors usually set emphasis or the personal disposition (6b) toward the
on broader (unstructured) thinking. As Lubart resources and activities. Other strategies strive to
(2005: 369) suggested, “the key to designing truly expand the potentials (1, 3, 4, 5b, 7b) or to avoid
useful systems may be to clarify the nature of the fixation (2, 3, 4, 5c, 6), by increasing the available
computer’s contribution for each proposed system, resources or by inducing a change of paradigm
how it fits with the nature of the creative thinking through the use of unfamiliar resources (3, 4, 7a).
task and to what extent the system provides what
the user[s] lack in order to be creative rather than So far, we have discussed two approaches to the
being redundant or contradictory with the users' study of decision-making. One approach deals with
own ways of functioning.” This expanded notion of estimating prospects in uncertain conditions,
creative heuristics tie the cognitive shortcuts used focusing on the use of heuristics as cognitive
in decision-making with the intent to produce a shortcuts for utilitarian decision-making. Another
creative output. approach proposes heuristics as strategies to deal
with creative decisions targeting two types of
Amabile (1996) compiled a list of the most cited activities: (a) activities that involve a large number
heuristics for decision-making in the context of of unknowns; (b) activities in which epistemic
creative activities. Rather than focusing on well- targets cannot be established before exploring the
defined procedures, five of the seven items epistemic space. Following Amabile (1996), a tight
discussed by Amabile describe strategies to deal definition of creative heuristics may exclude
with creative activity without predefined goals: formalized procedures, or at least it may use
1. Play with ideas (Wickelgren 1979). explicit formalization as preparation for decisions
2. Try to generate hypotheses by analyzing case based on implicit cognitive processes. These two
studies, using analogies, accounting for exceptions applications of heuristics point to a third avenue of
and investigating paradoxical incidents (McGuire research involving creative decisions with limited
1997). resources. Arguably, this is the most demanding
3. Make the familiar strange and the strange case for two reasons: 1. it precludes the adoption
familiar (Gordon 1961). of an explicit epistemic target – which would restrict
4. Try something counter-intuitive (Newell et al. the range of creative outcomes – and, 2. it reduces
1958). the availability of support for decision-making. This
5. (a) Use concentrated work sessions rather than second caveat is being addressed by recent
scattered, distributed work sessions; (b) start by proposals in interaction design (Herrmann 2009),
playing with the same idea in a number of different indicating the need for broad approaches aligned
ways before entering the idea-generating sessions; with the current developments in usability research
(c) do not rely on over-learning of response (Hornbaek 2006).
algorithms (Mednick 1962).
6. (a) Try to rearrange the elements of a problem;
(b) take a break; (c) start to consider a solution 3. CREATIVE BIASES
involving the most important elements before
elaborating the solution in detail; (d) try to consider Creative products can be characterized by their
classes of elements on behalf of particular heightened relevance and originality (Weisberg
elements; (e) given that the way to reach a goal 1993). When placed within the context of group
from your position seems too far, it may help to activities, these two factors may engage opposite
look for shorter ways (Anderson 1980). forces (Ferraz & Keller 2014). Widely distributed
7. (a) Apply ‘‘intermediate impossibles”; (b) resources tend to become more socially relevant
determine the value of an idea by its potential to set than scarce resources. The downside of easily
off further ideas rather than on is validity (de Bono available resources is that their originality
1971). magnitude is usually fairly low. Given these
constraints, collective creative products demand
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Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus
Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
creative decisions that lead to intense sharing of stretches of exploratory activity before any specific
unique resources. Psycho-economic models of goal can be established (Yamamoto & Nakakoji
creativity suggest that the analysis of the flow of 2005; Keller et al. 2014c). These exploratory
resources may unveil the mechanisms that boost activities consume a large amount of resources.
and constrain creative outcomes (Rubenson & The logic of the teleological approach is this: if we
Runco 1992, 1995; Sternberg & Lubart 1991). If restrict exploratory actions to a minimum, the
creative processes were to occur in ideal efficiency of the decision processes will increase.
conditions, creative decision-making would be What we are dealing with here is a bias favouring
based on objective, rational assessments that low resource consumption at the cost of reduced
would maximize the use of resources leading to process quality. The ability to reshape worldviews
improvements in both individual and group creative is one of the key features of creative practices
performance. This is rarely the case. Creative (Donald 2006). This ability may be closely related
processes are usually resource-intensive and high to the impact of the activity on the creative
performance levels are very difficult to maintain. potentials rather than to the solution of well-defined
Why is this so? problems. Large epistemic spaces seem to be a
requisite for the expansion of these potentials.
A possible answer to this question is that creativity-
oriented heuristics are riddled with biases and Second, creative practice is based on and impacts
unrealistic assessments of prospects. Even if this social relational properties (Keller et al. 2014b).
weren't the case, and individual decisions tended to These properties emerge through ongoing
optimize personal creative outcomes, the best interactions among agents. Thus, they are
scenario would not necessarily imply good results constantly changing but they do not change
for group creative practices. Thus, the study of abruptly. General creativity frameworks include
creative decision-making – within the field of persuasion as one of the determinants of the
aesthetic heuristics – involves at least two creative processes (Kozbelt et al. 2012). A similar
experimental strategies: (1) the analysis of creative proposal has recently been introduced within the
activity to unveil decision biases and; (2) the study context of computational creativity, labelled framing
of group creative outcomes to observe mismatches (Bown 2014). Both persuasion and framing
between individual prospective assessments and demand the active participation of the agents
group creative results. involved in the activity to manipulate the subjective
value of the creative products.
5. WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY CREATIVE Third, enactive activities – i.e., activities that have
BIASES? direct impact on the creative products – are usually
used to measure the effectiveness of creative
Creative activities involve the consumption and performance (Coughlan & Johnson 2006; Runco
production of resources (Rubenson & Runco 1992, 2004). This may be misleading. Despite the fact
1995; Sternberg & Lubart 1991). Purely rational that enactive activities have an immediate effect on
decisions would imply an optimal usage of the material relational properties, they may operate
resources, maximizing the creative output and at very low efficiency levels. This is the case with
ensuring positive impacts on both the material and novice practitioners. Within the context of group
social dimensions of the creative outcomes. This is musical activities, non-musicians participating in
rarely the case. There are several factors that enactive activities tend to produce lots of irrelevant
preclude an optimal performance in creative sonic products – usually defined as creative waste
activities. At least three of these factors are related (Ferraz & Keller 2014). As the agents gain
to the decision-making process involved in creative expertise, the quantity of garbage decreases and
activities. the probability of producing original and relevant
products increase. Concomitantly, the level of
Firstly, effective creative practice is usually very rejection – determined by the standard participants'
costly. In teleological activities, the epistemic goal acceptance of creative products – may also
is set in advance (Fantauzzacoffin & Rogers 2013). increase. Thus, when comparing newbies and
Creative practice is self-reflective (Donald 2006), highly skilled participants doing enactive activities
meaning that the creative strategies are shaped the ratio between the quantity of garbage and the
during the creative activity rather than before the quantity of products may remain the same, despite
activity takes place. The goals are products of the the changes in the quality of the overall output. In
activity, hence they cannot be fixed a priori. this case, what changes is the profile of the
However, despite the epistemological drawbacks of creative biases. Novices' decisions tend to favour
the teleological approach, it has been adopted by low resource consumption that lead to low-quality
several musical creativity theorists (Collins 2005) outcomes, while experts' generally adopt strategies
because of its low consumption of resources. that lead to high-quality products without the need
Aesthetic creative practice usually demands long to increase resource usage. One way to untangle
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Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus
Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
the analysis of performance in enactive activities is 2012). When faced with extreme conditions, such
to assess both the material output and the creative as activities demanding very long stretches of time
biases that underlie the decision-making process. or activities that have to be done in harsh
environments, machines are better equipped than
humans to deliver creative products. The cultural
6. POTENTIAL CREATIVE BIASES AND relevance of the technological expansion of human
PERSPECTIVE OF APPLICATIONS cognition is well supported by current philosophical
trends (see, for example, the various forms of the
This section discusses seven examples of what extended-brain hypothesis – Donald 2006;
may constitute distinct creative biases. We provide Hutchins 2010). The extended-brain proposal relies
definitions applicable both to the musical realm and on key cognitive resources available in the
to general creativity studies. Finally, we discuss the environment, including both social and material
implications of aesthetic heuristics for creativity- resources. Within this perspective, computational
centred design, pointing to retailored experimental resources can be categorized as one form of
strategies that take into account individual biases material resources (Keller et al. 2014a). As Donald
and their impact on group creative practices. So (2006) suggests, aesthetic activities depend heavily
far, we have identified seven examples of creative on material resources for cognitive support. Given
biases in the experimental literature on creativity: that creative activity demands both behavioural and
instrumentalism, carbon racism, rationalism, material resources, outcomes within technologically
autistic bias, persistence bias, display bias and oriented creative practices must make use of
magnitude bias. computational support as a source for creativity. In
their strongest manifestations, carbon-biased
Instrumentalism: The tendency to assign creative approaches stand on the premise that human
functions to a device. By focusing exclusively on groups without technology achieve equivalent
the device, the adopted technique predefines the creative magnitudes as the groups that employ
creative potential of the activity, i.e. treating the technological resources in their creative practices.
computational resources as if they were acoustic An empirical prediction of the weak carbon-biased
instruments. One example is the mobile music approach is that creative products produced by
instrument Ocarina (Wang 2014). The Ocarina humans will attain systematically higher creative
partially incorporates the affordances of the magnitudes than machine products. This may be
acoustic instrument of the same name, letting the be empirically analysed but in order to obtain
user press the touchscreen of the mobile telephone ecologically valid results on creative performance,
as if she were occluding holes of a ceramic experiments have to be conducted in everyday
ocarina. This device-oriented approach does not environments where creative activities are carried
take into account the actual affordances of the out. Most daily environments feature potential
relationship performer-instrument which are technological support for creative activity in the
constructed through the proprioceptive feedback form of personal portable devices, wireless Internet
provided by the real material in conjunction with the access and various audiovisual transduction
sonic outcome. Another example of systems. Given these baseline conditions, stripping
instrumentalism as an unsustainable technique has participants of all computational support will not
been documented by Ruviaro (2012). Laptop provide information on up-to-date creative activity.
orchestras adopt a European nineteenth-century Therefore, advances on the study of the carbon
hierarchical approach to music making, using bias will need to take into account everyday usage
portable computers as orchestral components of computational resources, untangling the
without changing the underlying social cognitive and the computational resource
assumptions. Given the rapid replacement of contributions and caveats.
computational devices, within the next few years
most laptop computers will probably end in a Rationalism: In principle, purely rational decisions
dumpster, burying with them all the music produced imply an optimal usage of resources. Thus, they
for the laptop format. Thus, laptop orchestras have maximize the creative output, reducing the impact
been born to linger as historical curiosities, just like on both the material and social resources. In
tape music, Wii and Kinect artworks. practice, rational decisions require well-defined
problems and constrained epistemic spaces.
Carbon racism: Strong form – only humans can Aesthetic decisions are usually highly subjective.
be creative; weak form – organisms are more They deal with volatile resources (Keller 2014),
creative than machines. The critical perspective on therefore factors and conditions are subject to rapid
this concept has emerged from research on changes. They are emotionally and socially
computational creativity (Bown 2014). The charged, with immediate impact on cognitive
manifestations of computational creativity show that resources. In a nutshell, creative practice deals
algorithmic outcomes can be as creative as non- with individual and group cognitive states that
technological products (McCormack & d'Inverno involve tight interactions among cognitive and
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Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
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Aesthetic heuristics in ubimus
Damián Keller, Nuno Otero & Leandro Costalonga
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