Studies on children's musical creativity based on the MIROR Platform : Brazil/Italy partnership

Background The MIROR Project (Musical Interaction Relying On Reflexion) was co-funded by the European Community under the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), 7th Framework Programme, sub programme Technology-enhanced Learning. The focus of theproject was the development of the MIROR Platform (MIROR-Impro MIROR-Compo andMIROR-Body Gesture), an innovative system for children’s music and dance learning and teaching, based on the “reflexive interaction” paradigm. The interactive reflexive musical systems refer to a special kind of human/machine interaction based on the mechanism of imitation and variation (Pachet, 2006) and has been systematically studied in the field of children’s creativity and learning (Addessi & Pachet, 2005; Addessi, 2020a). Reflexive interaction is a mechanism that stimulates creativity as it places the child at the centre of the musical and motor experience; Addessi (2014, 2020b) states that the reflexive interaction between child and machine tends to present similarities with the interaction between humans and, in this sense, reinforces the perspective of imitation and variation as the basis of creative dialogue. Aim. The MIROR project provided the development of a series of studies in different countries and in different contexts. The aim of this presentation, therefore, is to present the results of studies carried out with children and the MIROR platform in the framework of the partnership between the University of Bologna (Italy) and the Federal University of Paraná (Brazil), particularly on the use of the MIROR-Impro , devoted to the musical improvisation. Main contribution. Two studies were carried out in Brazil within the framework of the PROFCEM research group at the Federal University of Paraná (Formative and Cognitive processes in Musical Education): (1) A study on the use of the MIROR-Impro with adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (Figueiredo & Addessi, 2022 ; Luders Figueredo & Addessi, 2021) and (2) a study on the musical creativity of drum students placed in an interactive reflexive environment (Pscheidt, Araujo, Addessi, 2021, 2022).Both the two studies were qualitative and based on case studies and the observation. The first study aimed to understand musical and social interactions in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a digital learning environment. Data collection was carried out in a national compulsory school and seven adolescents with ASD, aged between 10 and 15 years old partecipated. The results pointed to four forms of musical engagement: unilateral, dyadic, triadic and collaborative. The second study aimed to investigate how the musical creativity of drums students occurs when they are inserted in an interactive reflexive environment; two kinds of interaction were studied: human/human and human/machine interaction. Three cases were selected, drums students aged between five and twelve years, for data collection and analysis. The results indicated that the interactive reflexive environment stimulated a creative musical context and the dynamic experience which characterize the interactive-reflexive components such as turn taking, imitation with variations, shared regular pulse and co-regulation. Discussion and conclusion. Both studies, based on case studies, brought relevant contributions to research on the use of the MIROR Platform and the reflexive interactive paradigm: (1) musical improvisation based on interactive-reflexive components encourages musical behaviours that favoured musical creativity such as exploration of new sounds and ways of playing, different types of musical listening (attentive, analytical, reflective, motor, intermodal), the curiosity to understand the interactive reflexive exercise, spontaneity, focus on sound, sharing musical ideas, and pleasure of playing; (2) technology can be an ally of the music teacher in contexts of inclusion as it is based on a learner-centred approach and allows participants to control the level of complexity of their interaction. From the two studies presented here, it is possible to conclude that the reflective interaction provided through the use of MIROR-Impro in the context of instrumental teaching and in the context of inclusion, provide relevant learning experiences and musical development, being a useful tool for the area of contemporary music education.