Exploring the Theoretical Landscape of BehCreative: Artistic and Therapeutic Possibilities of an Extended Digital Musical Instrument

Abstract

In the digital age, technology has become ubiquitous in various fields of knowledge, functioning as an extension of the human body – akin to a technological body. Consequently, it acquires ecological validity in our daily lives and offers a path for developing studies rooted in Embodied Cognition. This idea is illustrated by BehCreative, an Extended Digital Musical Instrument (EDMI) introduced and presented in this article. The article delineates the design, mapping and architecture of BehCreative from both musical and cognitive standpoints. Moreover, it explores how these instruments bridge the divide between traditional musical interfaces and immersive technologies, thereby redefining the limits of artistic expression and therapeutic interventions. The article highlights that BehCreative, as a hybrid instrument, holds the potential to facilitate therapeutic recovery and serve as an artistic tool for expressive purposes. Given its hybrid nature, BehCreative presents diverse possibilities for exploring users’ behavioral learning, as evidenced by the results of a mentioned exploratory study. Consequently, it substantiates the hypothesis of being an instrument that warrants examination from an interdisciplinary perspective.