Sounds of Connection: Tactile support of family engagement in elderly memory-care residents

Abstract

This paper presents a series of interactive tangible musical quilts. These quilts were designed as part of a graduate research course, in collaboration with a local senior assisted living centre, to create a work that would better support memory-care residents and their families. Each quilt includes a variety of soft buttons that trigger age-appropriate music when pressed. While the full project will result in 5 wall-hanging quilts and include a qualitative study with the residents, the current state of this work includes one finished quilt. This project took place when the COVID-19 pandemic began and spans in-person, phone, and email interactions with our collaborators. One finding through our literature review that was emphatically confirmed by the residence director, was the importance of context and social connection in a project. The contribution of this work is the exploration of how to create context that supports a social connection between memory care residents and their families to support positive morale, as well as how the design process was able to function in a hybrid manner.Soft circuits. Musical memory. Elderly design.