PUBLICATIONS & RESEARCH
Creative learning: A configurative review of features and practices
Authors: André Rabello-Mestre, Ingunn Johanne Ness, and Vlad Petre Glaveanu
Thinking Skills and Creativity (2025) In Press - Pre Proof, 101775
Abstract: The idea that learning and creativity are interrelated has experienced a renaissance in the last 20 years. Fashionable and suggestive, the concept of "creative learning" has found traction in educational policy and in progressive classrooms across the globe. This configurative review explores how the concept of creative learning has been understood and put into practice across 112 education studies since 2010. Specifically, the review addresses two questions: First, what are the constitutive features and actions that characterize creative learning? Second, what are the overarching themes that can be identified in the literature? The study reports on the findings of an extensive thematic analysis, which indicated four general approaches to creative learning: namely (1) creative agency over learning, (2) affective and embodied pathways, (3) relational ecologies, and (4) learning by doing and making. The review concludes with a discussion of each of these themes, deriving from them a set of practical recommendations and a revised definition of creative learning.
Listening to the Anthropocene: A Queda do Céu
Authors: André Rabello-Mestre and Felipe Otondo
Computer Music Journal (2022) 46 (1-2): 25–39.
Abstract: This article discusses the algorithmic design and implementation of A Queda do Céu, a sound installation and kinetic sculpture related to the Soundlapse project. In it we provide an overview of the project and go on to describe the main computational challenges related to the installation, which included a variety of real-time processing, interpolation, and mapping algorithms. We contextualize the work in relation to regional ecological and political debates, as well as the global climate crisis. In doing so, we echo other sound and field-recording artists in proposing that artworks have an important function as experimental arenas in which new technological applications can be probed and where new modes of listening can be investigated, reconfigured, and exercised. In closing, we lay out an overview of the current challenges being tackled by the Soundlapse project, specifically the development of a refined version of the sonic time-lapse method that incorporates machine learning routines and user-defined spatialization capabilities.
Finding Art and the Art of Finding: O Que Vos Nunca Cuidei a Dizer
Authors: André Rabello-Mestre, Claudia Núñez, and Mauricio Carrasco
Leonardo (2021) 54 (2): 242–246.
Abstract. The article discusses the making of O que vos nunca cuidei a dizer, a gallery work for interactive garment, transducer-based interface and live electronics. A technical description of the work is framed by an account of the creative process with reference to media archaeological methodology and by a discussion of the role of composed instruments in the new paradigms of artistic research.
Creative Dispositions:
Teaching for Creativity in Engineering Education
Authors: André Rabello-Mestre and Felipe Otondo
International Journal of Engineering Education (2021) 37 (4): 915–924.
Abstract: In this article, we discuss the incorporation of a course entitled “Creative Sound Workshop” into the Acoustic Engineering undergraduate curriculum at the Universidad Austral de Chile. The course was aimed at offering an experience of applied musical creativity to engineering students. We provide a detailed account of the process of curriculum design, with reference to the current literature on creativity and, more specifically, creative thinking in education. We also introduce the notion of “thinking dispositions”, in the light of which we discuss students’ performance on their final project: the design of a semi-autonomous interactive digital instrument using Pure Data, an open-source visual programming environment. Finally, we reflect on our experience of two years of teaching the workshop, and discuss how the course has been received.
The Soundlapse Project:
Exploring Spatiotemporal Features of Wetland Soundscapes
Authors: Felipe Otondo and André Rabello-Mestre
Leonardo (2022) 55(3): 267–271
Abstract. The article discusses an interdisciplinary project aimed at highlighting the acoustical heritage of urban wetlands, by means of field recordings and a novel time-lapse montage method. We discuss a site-specific sound installation that was designed using original wetlands field recordings, live processing, and spatial audio multi-channel reproduction. The discussion focuses on spatial and temporal features of different types of recorded wetlands soundscapes. Future developments of this project will consider the implementation of a standalone spatiotemporal application, to be used in the context of virtual reality applications, game audio, and interactive dance performance.