Date of Award

6-11-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Maya Ackerman

Abstract

To address the current mental health crisis, we propose a platform for co-creative systems that users can utilize as art/music therapy. Art therapy can be an effective way of self-expression that results in psychological benefits and improved mood. We analyze the effectiveness of 8 different systems, 4 musical and 4 art-based. These systems allow the users to create while the computer interacts and responds to their input. The results are evaluated on a before and after emotional assessment that we issue to the user. We targeted college age students and distributed our platform to Santa Clara University students during a typically stressful time in the school year. Based on our initial collection of data, co-creativity shows promising results to improve overall mood of users. There was no clear distinction between musical and art systems, however, the results indicate that all of these systems can improve the well-being of college age students. This platform can continue to expand and add more applications as well as extend to new users.

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