Breakdowns for Human-Machine Creative Reflexivity

2026-07-17

AI Summary

This work proposes “interruption” as a novel paradigm for human-AI co-creativity, challenging the prevailing goal-oriented computational approaches that often fail to support meaningful creative experiences. Framing interruptions not as disruptions but as pivotal opportunities for mutual reflection and perspective exchange, the study investigates dialogic and behavioral patterns in human collaborative creation through qualitative observation and interaction analysis. It identifies intersubjective signals of interruption and distills transferable mechanisms that can trigger reflective engagement in human-AI systems. Preliminary findings suggest that interruption-based design effectively fosters deeper co-creation and enhances human creative agency, offering a promising new direction for the development of creativity support tools.

Abstract

Generative AI (GenAI) works via goal-directed computation, which differs fundamentally from human creative processes. This poses challenges for the intelligent support of creative experiences. We propose ``breakdowns'' as opportunities for the exchange of perspectives between human and machine. Breakdowns disrupt a flow and force us to consciously evaluate our ``being-in-the-world''. Between human and machine, breakdowns can function as openings for collaborative creative reflection. We are currently studying human-human creative interactions, to identify the markers of these inter-subjective openings, and to understand how they are used in a co-creative process. We present preliminary findings on breakdowns as a design principle for creativity support, prioritising human creative agency and meaningful reflection over automated content generation.

Problem

• Generative AI
• creative processes
• human-machine collaboration
• creativity support
• breakdowns

Innovation

• breakdowns
• creative reflexivity
• human-machine collaboration
• generative AI
• design principle