Nicholas M. Davis

Creativity support for novice digital filmmaking

Machinima is a new form of creative digital filmmaking that leverages the real time graphics rendering of computer game engines. Because of the low barrier to entry, machinima has become a popular creative medium for hobbyists and novices while still retaining borrowed conventions from professional filmmaking. Can novice machinima creators benefit from creativity support tools? A preliminary study shows novices generally have difficulty adhering to cinematographic conventions. We identify and document four cinematic conventions novices typically violate. We report on a Wizard-of-Oz study showing a rule-based intelligent system that can reduce the frequency of errors that novices make by providing information about rule violations without prescribing solutions. We discuss the role of error reduction in creativity support tools.

An Enactive Model of Creativity for Computational Collaboration and Co-creation

The modern landscape of computing has rapidly evolved with breakthroughs in new input modalities and interaction designs, but the fundamental model of humans giving commands to computers is still largely dominant. A small but growing number of projects in the computational creativity field are beginning to study and build creative computers that are able to collaborate with human users as partners by simulating, to various degrees, the collaboration that naturally occurs between humans in creative domains (Biles, Leonardo, 36:43–45, 2003; Lubart, Int J Hum Comput Stud, 63:365–369, 2005; Hoffman and Weinberg, Shimon: an interactive improvisational robotic marimba player. In: CHI’10 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, ACM, New York, pp 3097–3102, 2010; Zook et al., Understanding human creativity for computational play. In: 8th ACM conference on creativity and cognition, 2011; Davis et al., Building artistic computer colleagues with an enactive model of creativity, 2014). If this endeavor proves successful, the implications for HCI and the field of computing in general could be significant. Creative computers could understand and work alongside humans in a new hybrid form of human-computer co-creativity that could inspire, motivate, and perhaps even teach creativity to human users through collaboration.

Computing harmony with PerLogicArt: perceptual logic inspired collaborative art

This paper proposes a new model of perception called Perceptual Logic and applies it to the domain of art to understand artistic style. We describe style in terms of affordances, or ways in which an artist can interact with and contribute to an artwork. Different types of Perceptual Logic are found to influence the perceived affordances of an artwork. We present a computational collaborative art program called PERLOGICART that uses a computational model of Perceptual Logic to learn an artists style through collaboration. The research is conducted using a practice-based method --- we are working on building an interactive tool to support the making of artworks and the understanding of the creative process at the same time. PERLOGICART is a compelling interactive artwork as well as a valuable research tool that records and categorizes the creative process in a systematic manner.

Toward a cognitive theory of creativity support

We present the beginnings of a Cognitive Theory of Creativity Support aimed specifically at understanding novices and their needs. Our theory identifies unique difficulties novices face and reasons that may keep them from engaging in creative endeavors, such as fear of failure, time commitment, and lack of skill. To test our theory, we use it to analyze existing creativity support tools from multiple domains. We also describe the design and initial implementation of a creativity support tool based on our theory. The creativity support tool, called StorySketch, is designed to empower storytellers without graphical skills to engage in visual storytelling.

Drawing Apprentice: An Enactive Co-Creative Agent for Artistic Collaboration

This paper describes a co-creative web-based drawing application called the Drawing Apprentice. This system collaborates with users in real time abstract drawing. We describe the theory, interaction design, and user experience of the Drawing Apprentice system. We evaluate the system with formative user studies and expert evaluations from a juried art competition in which a Drawing Apprentice submission won the code-based art category.

Tangible games for stroke rehabilitation with digital box and blocks test

The Digital Box and Block Test (DBBT) is a post-stroke rehabilitation assessment apparatus for in-home use. It is based on the clinically validated Box and Block Test used to measure unilateral gross manual dexterity. We show that the automated DBBT scoring algorithms achieve at least 90% accuracy on a scoring procedure that is traditionally labor intensive and subjective. Furthermore, we propose a tangible gaming system based on DBBT to increase patient motivation and make rehabilitation exercises more enjoyable.

An Enactive Characterization of Pretend Play

This paper presents the result of an empirical study of 32 adult dyads (i.e. groups of two people) engaged in pretend play. Our analysis indicates that participatory sense-making plays a key role in the success of pretend play sessions. We use the cognitive science theory of enaction as a theoretical lens to analyze the empirical data given its robust conceptual framework for describing participatory sense-making. We present here five enactive characteristics of pretend play that appear to be necessary and sufficient for the emergence and maintenance of successful pretend play -- mental preparation, meaning building, narrative enaction, narrative deepening, and flow maintenance. This enactive formalization is used to propose a computational model of pretend play that can be used to design an agent capable of playing in real time with human users.

Designing for Socially Interactive Systems

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of LuminAI, a socially interactive art installation in which participants can engage in collaborative movement improvisation with virtual agents and other humans. LuminAI was used as a technical probe to study social interaction within interactive art at a local art gala during which over 100 participants interacted with the system. Video and interview data was gathered during the event and analyzed using thematic analysis to develop a taxonomy to guide the design of socially interactive systems involving humans and artificial agents. This taxonomy helped us identify areas where LuminAI was successful, where it needs improvement, and conceptual spaces we have yet to explore.

Sketch master: a sketch game for collecting exploratory data

We present the concept and implementation of a sketching game called Sketch Master. Sketch Master is a game designed to help players learn and practice drawing from memory. The architecture of the tool and its various game modes are presented. Additionally, we describe how functions in Sketch Master serve as a research instrument to collect exploratory data about the relation between perception, memory, and sketching.

Creative Sense-Making: Quantifying Interaction Dynamics in Co-Creation

This paper describes a new technique for quantifying interaction dynamics during open-ended co-creation, such as collaborative drawing or playing pretend. We present a cognitive framework called creative sense-making. This framework synthesizes existing cognitive science theories and empirical investigations into open-ended improvisation to develop a method of quantifying cognitive states and types of interactions through time. We apply this framework to empirical studies of human collaboration (in the domain of pretend play) and AI-based systems (in the domain of collaborative drawing) to establish its validity through cross-domain application and inter-rater reliability within each domain. The creative sense-making framework described includes a qualitative coding technique, interaction coding software, and the cognitive theory behind their application.