11 / Flow Music

Creative help.
Creative agency.

Analyze human–AI music co-creation through motivation, workflow, and social context.

My contribution
Team contributor. Collaborative HCI theory analysis.
Team context
Three-person UW team.
Stage
Academic product analysis
Delivered
Analytical poster and video presentation.

Selected artifacts.

The team’s poster and video presentation, followed by a reconstructed analytical framework.

Harmonizing Human and Machine: a Flow Music analysis through Self-Determination Theory, Distributed Cognition, and Activity Theory.

Harmonizing Human & Machine

Our analytical poster connects creative agency, distributed thinking, and the wider consequences of AI co-creation.

View full-size poster ↗

Co-creation lens / reconstructed

  1. CreatorGoals and meaningful control.
  2. ToolsAI suggestions and feedback.
  3. WorkflowThinking across interactions.
  4. CommunityNorms and wider consequences.

An analytical framework for an existing product, not a new music-generation system.

Key decisions.

01

Keep the creator in control.

The team examined a vlogger creating a short soundtrack without music-production experience. Self-Determination Theory connected assistance to autonomy and competence: the creator still needs meaningful choices.

02

Study the whole workflow.

Distributed Cognition helped us examine thinking across the person, interface, generated music, and feedback. The focus extended beyond a single prompt or output.

03

Consider the consequences.

Activity Theory connected creative goals to community norms, roles, and responsibilities. This brought questions of fairness and cultural impact into the product analysis.

Outcome & next step.

A shared framework for discussing creative control and the wider implications of generative music tools.

Next: evaluate these ideas with creators. The team analyzed Flow Music; it did not build the platform or measure improved creative outcomes.

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