Designing new musical technologies for older adults' wellbeing
How can technologies assist us to age creatively?
When living with dementia, older adults value non-pharmacological interventions which help them continue doing activities they enjoy, things that hold their interest, as well as tasks that support communication with others and keeping hold of their identity. Participating in music can provide a path to achieving these outcomes, but activities are often limited by traditional tools and devices.
Collaborating with researchers across music, psychology and engineering, this research project investigates how we can harness emerging technologies to boost opportunities for older adults living with dementia and their carers to interact with music, whether it be listening to music, creating playlists, singing, songwriting, or playing a musical instrument.
Upcoming Events
Conversations with your music player Community Workshop - Thursday 20th April 12:30 to 3pm
The Music Dementia Technology Team warmly invites you to our Conversations with your Music Player Community Workshop. Work with the team to re-think and enhance how we interact with music players like Spotify, or smart speakers like Alexa or Google to better meet the musical needs of people living with dementia.
Past Events
Hack the Hug - Thursday 12th January 12:30 to 3pm
At our Hack the Hug Community Workshop, our community partners tested out the Hug device created by Laugh for the Alzheimer’s Society. Working with the team we were re-thinking how we could enhance its musical abilities to better meet the musical needs of people living with dementia.
Festival of the Mind – Dementia Café in the Spiegeltent 16 September 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
University of Sheffield Open Office Event – Jessop West Music Building 28 October from 12.30-3pm.
What does the project involve?
Over the next four years (2021-2025), the team will lead various research activities to:
evidence the needs, rewards and barriers for older adults with cognitive impairments and their carers in using musical interfaces
develop tools and technologies to facilitate music interaction
analyse how these interfaces can be optimised for maximum usage and enjoyment, sense of wellbeing, agency, and social integration.
In 2021, we have recently completed i) a scoping review that draws together recent advances in technologies for the creative arts for people living with dementia (publication under review), ii) a national survey for arts workers and organisations to gather the lessons learned from delivering activities online/remotely for people living with dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic (analysis underway).
We have also released a survey for people living with dementia in 2022 to find out what their preferences and needs are for interacting with music. We have run a number of consultation events with various community partners in Sheffield where we look at a number of existing technologies and specially developed prototypes and discuss how we like to interact with music. We are always looking for partners to discuss this project with - if you are interesed in the team coming out to your organisation and running music activities, please get in touch with project lead Jennifer MacRitchie (j.macritchie@sheffield.ac.uk).
Future work will include design workshopping and collaboration with Bela in order to bring about and test new designs. If you are interested in assisting with this research either as a participant, or through Public and Patient Involvement (PPI), then please get in touch (see: How to get involved).
How to get involved
If you are living with dementia, are a spouse, family member and/or someone who provides care for someone living with dementia, if you wish to be involved in informing the research, please get in touch with Jennifer MacRitchie
The Team
This project is led by Dr Jennifer MacRitchie, funded by a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship at The University of Sheffield, in collaboration with Prof Renee Timmers, Dr Justin Christensen, Jonathan Pigrem, Katherine Jackson and Dr Georgia Floridou (Music Mind Machine group), Prof Luc de Witte (Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare, The University of Sheffield), and Prof Andrew McPherson (Augmented Instruments Lab, Queen Mary University London) with partnership from Bela (Augmented Instruments Ltd)