Designing new musical technologies for older adults' wellbeing

In the next 50-years, it is estimated that there will be an additional 8.6 million people in the UK who are aged over 65, and over 1.4 million of these are expected to have dementia. Interacting with music has the potential to be a powerful activity for people with varying levels of cognitive impairment, contributing to their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

Yet, access for older adults who live independently out in the community, those who are supported by formal/informal carers or who are in residential care is vastly limited by the current tools and devices we use to make and explore music.

This fellowship investigates how we can harness emerging technologies to boost opportunities for older adults with cognitive impairment to interact with music. This links previous research demonstrating that older adults gain strong and positive social connections when interacting with music together, with the development and refinement of new technologies that will increase accessibility for those with cognitive impairments.

The fellowship will take a multi-layered approach with aims including i) investigating the macro-level of unmet needs of older adults with cognitive impairments, i.e. what do they want to be able to do and/or create with music, how do they want a new tool to look, feel like, and respond, ii) determining the micro-level intricacies of design that will have an immense impact on usage, enjoyment and consequently the user's wellbeing, and iii) using the knowledge generated to feed into the design of new resources and tools for this population. Using multidisciplinary methods (laboratory-controlled individual experiments, survey and group workshops) to examine these interconnected levels, outcomes will be chanelled into the development of innovative new tools and assistive technologies which specifically enable older adults, ranging from mild to moderate cognitive impairment, to fully participate in interacting with music, both individually and in group activities.

The fellowship is innovative in terms of incorporating older adults with cognitive impairments and their carers as co-designers of this research. This will allow for the potential end-users to assist in designing the research activities and interpretation of the findings as well as co-developing the resultant tools and technologies. Outcomes will be a set of prototype musical interfaces designed specifically for this group.

Guidelines will be published that concern the development and selection of new music technologies with the aims of widening accessibility for different caring contexts. This will ultimately be of benefit to a wide range of facilitators from volunteers, community arts workers, music therapists and lifestyle coordinators in aged care. Findings and resources will also be of use to those involved in the design of new assistive technologies, particularly to support creative activities, as well as those in aged-care and public health, providing further evidence of the value of arts interventions within care.

This research will expressly be of benefit to older adults with dementia and their carers, creating new resources to support increased interaction with music and consequently contribute to sustained wellbeing.