Artistic Practice Opportunities in CST Evaluations: A Longitudinal Group Deployment of ArtKrit

TL;DR

This paper presents a longitudinal, group-based evaluation method for creativity support tools, demonstrated through a three-week deployment of ArtKrit with digital artists, highlighting evolving relationships and social dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel longitudinal, group-based evaluation approach for CSTs, emphasizing artistic engagement and social context over traditional methods.

Findings

Artists' relationships with ArtKrit evolved from experimentation to personal use.

Social networks fostered confidence and creative safety among artists.

Evaluation as artistic engagement enhances understanding of CST impact.

Abstract

Creativity support tools (CSTs) aim to elevate the quality of artists' creative processes and artifacts. Yet most current CST evaluations overlook temporal and social aspects of tool use. To address this gap, we present a longitudinal, group-based CST evaluation through a three-week deployment of ArtKrit, a computational drawing tool that supports disciplined drawing. Nine digital artists, organized into three communities of practice, completed weekly "master studies" alongside a researcher-artist. Our results show users' evolving relationships with ArtKrit over time - from early experimentation to selective incorporation or misuse - alongside changes in their ways of artistic seeing. These changes unfolded within artist support networks that fostered confidence and creative safety, and validated individual expression. Overall, our findings suggest that CST evaluations can - and should - be designed as opportunities for meaningful artistic engagement rather than purely extractive measurement exercises. We contribute this longitudinal, group-based approach as one CST evaluation method.