Children's interaction with a musical machine

The relationship between new technology and learning is gaining increasing relevance in the field of music education (Webster 2002; Folkestad 1996). However, only a few studies have considered the nature of the interaction between children and musical machine. An observation setting was realised to study young children 3-5 years old confronting a particular interactive musical system, the Continuator, able to produce music in the same style as a human playing the keyboard (Pachet 2003). The observation was carried out in an Italian kindergarten. Three sessions were held once a day for 3 consecutive days. In every session the children were asked to play in 4 different ways: just with the keyboard, with the keyboard and the Continuator, with another child, and both with another child and the Continuator. The results suggest that the Continuator, as well as similar interactive reflective musical systems (IRMS), is able to develop interesting child/machine interaction and creative musical processes in young children, thanks above all to its ability to replicate the musical style of the child that is playing. It was possible to observe a sort of life cycle of interaction, as well as micro-processes, based on the mechanism of repetition/variation, similar to those observed in child/adult interaction (Stern 1985, Trevarthen 2000, Imberty 2002). The ability of the system to attract and hold the attention of children has been interpreted through the theory of Flow introduced by Csikszentmihalyi (1990). In light of these results, the project foresees the experimentation of new variants of IRMS. The aims are to establish a spiral organization between system design and psychological research, and to perform experiments in different countries in order to assess the pedagogical value of these systems.