Tools in Support of Creative Collaboration Position Paper Dr. Cathy Treadaway University of Wales Institute Cardiff Cardiff , Wales, UK [email protected] ABSTRACT

working is vital if technology is to become widely adopted by practitioners whose interests inevitably centre on the act of creation rather than the complexities of digital processes.

This position paper states my interest, both as an art practitioner and researcher, in the ways in which digital tools are able to support creative collaboration. Recent research at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff has indicated the importance of social aspects of digital tool use in creative collaboration and in particular the significance of shared physical experience and memory. Electronic communication of digital files has been found to impact not only on the development of sustainable collaborative relationships but also to directly challenge accepted norms of authorship and economic value of artwork.

This position paper draws from findings from recent doctoral research investigating the ways in which technology is used by textile artists and designers, to develop both visual concepts and material artifacts in their everyday working environment [7]. Many art practitioners use digital imaging technology (PC, scanner, graphics tablet and digital cameras) to stimulate creative thinking and concept development. The digital process, communicated via the Internet and portable storage media, provides them with opportunities for collaboration and interaction in ways that would have been unimaginable twenty years ago. Findings from this research have highlighted issues that are of significance for the development of enhanced digital tools, interface and software design as well as the social environment, working processes and education of practitioners.

Findings from practical collaborative investigations involving the creation of textile art for exhibition indicate that those digital tools currently most widely used by practitioners lack sensory feedback that stimulates the artist’s imagination and promotes creative action. Author Keywords

Collaboration, creativity, digital tools, visual art ACM Classification Keywords

2.0 SOCIAL ASPECTS OF TOOLS AND TOOL USE

H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):

2.1 The importance of physical experience and memory

Collaborative visual art requires the exchange of visual representations that require interpretation and nonjudgmental acceptance as boundary objects. This imagery is used to stimulate further ideas and refocus end goal requirements; for instance, in the design of a product, a sketch serves as a visual metaphor for the artifact. The interpretation of visual representations between collaborators requires the development of a common visual language.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

My interests as both an artist and researcher concern the ways in which digital tools are able to support and enhance creative processes used by visual artists when working in collaboration with others. Future working practice is likely to become increasingly collaborative due to the complexity and ubiquity of digital artifact production, in which practitioners with diverse skills and aptitudes are required, or choose, to work on a single visual art or design output. Understanding the dynamics of creative cognition and team

Mutual physical experience and shared memory have been found to be fundamental to productive creative thinking when working collaboratively with digital technology [7]. Successful collaborations depend on effective communication including the development of common verbal and visual language and shared meaning. In research undertaken at University of Wales Institute Cardiff, artworks were developed collaboratively following case study field visits in which the practitioners were able to build a common language to describe empathic appreciation

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of visual qualities and tactile sensibilities that proved fundamental in the development of the artwork. Understanding of each other’s art practice and alignment of common goals were also found to be important within the collaborative process prior to any practical creative use of digital tools. An appreciation of the aesthetic values of the collaborating partners enabled areas of common visual interest to be identified and assisted the selection of thematic stimulation for the origins of the work. It is clear from these findings that social engagement is fundamental to the effective creative use of digital tools. Research cited in Norman [5] indicates that positive emotion is more conducive to creative thinking. Intrinsic motivation, stress free, relaxed and non-judgmental environments have been found to increase creativity [1] This research indicates that where common ground has been established through shared physical experience, digital working relationships are enhanced and provide mutual understanding as visual concepts are developed; relationships are more relaxed and friendly and the creative process more adventurous and less inhibited by the fear of judgment. Practitioners interviewed for the research were unanimous in stating that empathy and common values were fundamental to the successful development of collaborative artwork using digital tools in a distributed environment. 2.2 Sustainability of relationships

Email, instant messaging and telephone conversations were found to be useful tools in building and sustaining relationships throughout the creative digital process. However, there were a small number of instances when creative obstacles were resolved only by face-to-face meetings and through the sharing of physical artifacts. Body language, gesture and communication of emotion, often lacking in email and textual messaging, is likely to play an important role in providing the required sensitivity that propagates secure and relaxed relationships in which creative thinking can be cultivated. Human factors such as personality, leadership and appropriation of the project were found to influence the successful adoption and development of new ideas. Digital tools and communication frequently lacks the emotive and gestured content that is the norm in analogue creative processes and this raises questions as to how technology might be improved in order to address these issues. 2.3 Decision making

The rapid generation of visual concepts when using digital tools makes the discrimination and selection processes vital. Artists find that the decision making process can be exhausting. In hand rendered artwork, time and materials place constraints on the progress of the work and a poetic, visceral, intuitive approach often drives the development of creative ideas; the process and outcome simply feel right. Digital practice was described by practitioners as being less fluid than making by hand and more demanding in terms of

cognitive processing and idea selection. In the poetic process of physical making, serendipitous outcomes often occur spontaneously and are difficult to change; this inevitably reduces the pressure on the number of critical decisions that need to be made. In digital work however, the potential to step backwards and undo provide limitless possibilities for change and new ideas. 3.0 ARTIFACTS IN CREATIVE COLLABORATION 3.1 Sensory stimulation

How then can digital tools be enhanced to enable a more poetic and spontaneous interaction with the powerful processing and communication potential of the technology? The importance of hand making, touch and tactile sensibilities were found to be key findings in the research. Non-specialized digital imaging technology, widely used by most visual art practitioners (computer, graphics tablet, scanner etc.), is limited by its deficiency in providing the sensory feedback that feeds the artists’ imagination. The touch of clay in the potters hand, the reflective luminescence of silk that is warm to touch, the cool smooth reflective surface of bronze cannot yet be adequately expressed or communicated in the digital medium. These visual and tactile qualities not only contribute to the development of visual representations, but also provide an emotive physical response that stimulates the imagination enabling ideas and memories to be blended and new concepts to be formed. Designers of digital tools to support creative collaboration must address how these sensory prompts can be communicated via digital technology and shared between collaborating partners. 3.2 Digital communication

The potential to replicate digital files over the Internet, in order to generate artifacts in different geographic locations, enables collaborating teams working in distributed environments to create multiple versions of an artifact. This has implications for both the authorship of the work and its economic status since the monetary value of most artworks relies upon uniqueness or limited availability. Digital inkjet printing in both two and three dimensions enables products to be prototyped with ease in multiple locations. Changes in printing substrate, materials or colors may affect the rendition of a particular digital file and its subsequent refinement or redesign. How to keep track of multiple versions where each can be considered a unique representation as a result of subtle changes in the production process, adds complexity to the collaborative process. Communication of color across digital display systems and methods of printed output continues to prove a difficulty for those visual artists who wish to collaborate but who do not have access to sophisticated colour calibration equipment [2]. These practical issues involving digital communication prove frustrating and creatively inhibiting to many artists.

3.3 Software

involved in development of digital tools to support creativity.

Many visual artists who want or need to work collaboratively with others using digital technology are frequently inhibited by software design and peripheral devices. Most practitioners do not wish to engage with understanding the logic of a particular software application and have little desire to programme or write scripts with which to amend or edit commercial packages [4]; their paramount interest is their creative intention. Multidisciplinary groups may have the advantage of including specialists within the collaborating team; however, where the collaboration involves only visual arts practitioners the software engineer becomes the unwitting gatekeeper to the creative activity, influencing the development of the visual concepts through the structure and characteristics built into the code. Most practitioners become fluent at their craft, enabling the procedural knowledge to become tacit background thinking, in order to focus on the creative task [3]. A painter does not need to consciously consider how to make a particular brush mark or effect, nor a potter the finger movements required to shape a lump of clay. Software that enables computer operation to remain background cognition and the active task at the fore facilitates creative action [6]. The needs of arts practitioners to have fluency and flow in using technology to develop creative ideas must be recognized by those in the industry who are concerned with the development of effective creativity support tools. These needs might be addressed through the development of novel interfaces that are able to mimic more closely the kinesthetic and haptic skills involved in physical making.

REFERENCES:

1. Amabile, T. M. Creativity in context: update to the social psychology of creativity. Boulder, Colo; Oxford, Westview Press, (1996). 2. Campbell, J. R. Controlling digital color printing on textiles. Total color management in textiles. J. Xin. Cambridge, Woodhead Publishing Ltd.: 2006, 160-190. 3. Dormer, P. The art of the maker: [skill and its meaning in art, craft and design]. London, Thames & Hudson, (1994). 4. McCullough, M. Abstracting Craft, The Practiced Digital Hand. Cambridge Massachusetts, MIT, 1996. 5. Norman, D. A. Emotional design: why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York, Basic Books, 2004. 6. Raskin, J. The humane interface: new directions for designing interactive systems. Reading, Mass.; Harlow, Addison-Wesley, 2000. 7. Treadaway, C. Digital imaging: Its current and future influence upon the creative practice of textile and surface pattern designers. PhD thesis in Art and Design. Cardiff, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, 2006.

4.0 SUMMARY

Analysis of data from practical creative collaborations using digital imaging technology in a distributed context has informed this paper. Memory of shared physical experience was found to have a significant impact not only on the generation of novel ideas but also on social aspects of collaborative working with digital tools. The development of positive emotions between practitioners, shared visual language and the ability to communicate well verbally were found to be vital in the establishment of relationships capable of fostering and sustaining creativity and facilitating the required critical selection and decision making processes. Digital tools were found to lack the sensory stimulation and haptic feedback that fuels creative thought in material based practice. Issues involving communication of visual concepts, their production as multiple versions, value and authorship were raised as potential difficulties when working on creative collaborations. As both a researcher and artist, who has worked collaboratively on creative projects, I feel I would be able to contribute my personal experience to the workshop. It would also provide an opportunity for me to increase my understanding of the wider technical issues of those

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