Sonification -- Person-Environment-Occupation Model

Can bloogle resonators enhance representation of time, space, and culture through the Person-Environment-Occupation Model?

Author:  Sandra Kirkwood B.Music, B.Occ.Thy, M.Phil., Music Health Australia.

Workshop Presentation: AUC CreateWorld Digital Arts Conference, 12-13 February 2014

Abstract:
The Person-Environment-Occupation Model (P-E-O) has been a catalyst for numerous applications to enhance peoples’ occupational performance. The P-E-O model was developed by Canadian occupational therapists, Mary Law and colleagues in 1996 as a transactive approach to occupational performance. Research indicates the usefulness of the P-E-O model for representing change over time at identified points across peoples’ lifespan.  However, this paper considers whether the P-E-O Model could be represented in an alternate way, through acoustic sonification with bloogle resonators.  Methods of literature review and activity analysis are used to introduce the potential for sonification of the P-E-O model through researching musical performance on an easy-to-play instrument known as a bloogle resonator. The significance of socio-cultural representation is discussed in relation to musical performance in educational, occupational therapy, and creative arts practice contexts.

Key Words:  Person-Environment-Occupation model, sonification, music culture, creative arts, occupational therapy

Introduction
The Person-Environment-Occupation Model was developed by Canadian occupational therapists as a useful tool for explaining concepts of professional practice to others (Law, Cooper, Strong, Stewart, Rigby, & Letts, 1996). The Model is represented by the authors as a visual diagram that shows the interconnectedness between people, environments and occupations. The visual diagram of the P-E-O Model assists therapists to achieve the best fit by working with clients to influence relationships between the person-environment-occupation components. Since the model was developed by Mary Law and colleagues in 1996, therapists have applied the Model extensively to working with people with a disability, but the visual nature of the diagram has never been questioned in the research literature. This study is intended to scrutinise whether the concepts of the P-E-O Model could be demonstrated through non-visual modalities, such as through sounds – a process known as sonification.  Literature review will reveal more about sonification and whether it has potential to represent broad concepts of time, space and culture that people encounter in contemporary material world and virtual contexts. My working hypothesis is that the nature of the visual diagram of the P-E-O Model may limit conceptual understanding; and that representation of the P-E-O Model in an alternate way may enhance representation of time, space and culture.

At this early stage of research I have chosen to conduct an activity analysis of playing a simple musical instrument, known as a bloogle resonator, to explore representation of the P-E-O Model concepts through sound. This is an innovative study because the use of musical instruments for dynamic modelling of occupational therapy concepts was not found in OT Seeker, a database which lists research that forms an evidence-base for occupational therapy practice. The findings of activity analysis with bloogle resonators are discussed to determine potential application to occupational therapy, creative arts practice, and professional education. Because the research is still under development, recommendations are made for further experimentation with sonification as a way of representing conceptual models. The methods are not yet in use with client groups for therapy, but techniques of sonification are being developed in workshops with musicians, artists and professional colleagues.

Background and History
As a musician, my creative practice intersects with my vocation as an occupational therapist and the principles of “doing, being and becoming” (Wilcock 1999, Kirkwood 2011). Action learning philosophies are well known to many disciplines. Aristotle spoke of praxis in Poetics 6 with the meaning of ‘action’ (Belfiore 1984, Aristotle 1996). Capitalising on this thinking, action learning philosophies have been espoused by educationalists such as, Friedrich Fröbel, founder of the kindergarten movement in Germany in 1840, followed by the progressive education precepts of John Dewey, Rudolf Steiner, and Maria Montessori. The post-World War One development of the profession of occupational therapy was founded on the moral value of being actively engaged with daily routines of meaningful activities to promote adaptation and well-being in mental health hospital facilities (Meyer 1922/1977). “Arts and crafts activities constituted the main tools of occupational therapy practice from the beginning of the profession until about the 1960s” (Schmid 2004, 80).

Mary Reilly, occupational therapist stated the hypothesis on which our profession is founded… “That man though the use of his hands as they are energised by mind and will, can influence the state of his own health” (Reilly 1962, 2). This highlights how peoples’ active participation is thought to be connected with their state of health. The primary role of occupational therapists today is “working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support occupational engagement” (World Federation of Occupational Therapists 2010, 1).

The P-E-O Model grew out of multi-disciplinary approaches of trying to influence peoples’ behaviour by altering aspects of the social and physical environment, rather than trying to cure or repair individual body structures and functions (Bronfenbrenner 1977, Kielhofner and Burke 1980). Ideally, occupational therapists support and enhance peoples’ occupational performance in home and community settings. However, occupational therapy is often provided in clinical facilities that are sanitised and removed from the client’s usual socio-cultural environment. The application of the P-E-O Model therefore becomes problematic in these settings which are devoid of the usual inter-personal relationships and consequences of actions. The tendency to simulate, rather than perform daily living tasks in home and community settings makes it difficult to predict how people will function when they are discharged from a health facility. Safety is now a primary consideration, with less emphasis on action learning through creative activities and collaboration with others. “Since the 1960s, the use of arts and crafts as therapeutic activities has diminished in practice and professional education”(Schmid 2004, 80).

A secondary benefit of this study is that it analyses the value of identified creative arts activities within occupational therapy practice to build understanding of concepts (Peloquin 1989, Schmid 2004). Critical discussion has occurred over the use of music in occupational therapy, but there has been no consensus because there is large variation in musical competence of therapists, and in some centres music is performed by specialist music therapists or others for diverse reasons (MacRae 1992). Occupational therapy specialisation in music has been applied to certain areas, such as with people who have a learning disability (Williams 2013), and for engagement with music heritage and culture (Kirkwood 2008). Occupational therapy students are encouraged to explore emerging roles as part of their professional practice education. The innovations discussed in this paper may be relevant to the development of emerging roles and creative arts practice within and beyond the occupational therapy profession (Thew 2011). 

Methodology
The purpose of this study is to explore musical performance of person-environment-occupation transactions on an easy-to-play musical instrument, known as a bloogle resonator.  

Image 1:  Bloogle resonator. Photograph by author, 2013.

This study uses activity analysis and literature review to explore the key research question “Can bloogle resonators enhance representation of time, space, and culture through the Person-Environment-Occupation Model?” 

The method of activity analysis has been used extensively throughout the history of occupational therapy (Creighton 1992). The person and situation-specific parameters vary from one individual to another, but a single activity has been selected for the purposes of this study -- musical performance on a bloogle resonator, also known as whirly tube, sound hose, or corrugaphone.  Bloogle resonators were chosen because they are easily accessed, inexpensive, and can be played by most people with minimal tuition. A workshop was held on August 10, 2013 with four professional colleagues to analyse the capacity of bloogle resonators to represent people-environment-occupation transactions over time, space, and in reference to identified cultural situations. Activity analysis involves describing the capacity of the instrument for musical expression and the different ways that it can be played to achieve particular ends.

Musical experimentation with bloogle resonators will help to determine if sonification is useful for representation of the components of the P-E-O model. If the findings of this study reveal that sonification can enhance conceptual representation, then this supports active engagement of stakeholders in new forms of creative collaboration within occupational therapy, creative arts practice, and professional practice education. In this study, ‘stakeholders’ refers to all people who have an interest in the research including clients, therapists, educators, researchers and creative arts practitioners.

Literature Review

Person-Environment-Occupation Model
The P-E-O model was originally represented by the authors as a two-dimensional Venn diagram (Law and Cooper et al. 1996). The three inter-locking circles reveal the extent of the interdependence of transactions between people, their environments and the occupational roles that they carry out as part of everyday living (see figure 1). The degree of overlap of the three circles represents the goodness-of-fit for occupational performance which is adjusted through adaptation to life circumstance (Law et al. 1996). Theoretically, when the overlap between the P-E-O components is greatest, this constitutes better occupational performance; but this needs to be more thoroughly evaluated on a case-by-case basis because there is great variation in how the model has been applied in case studies (Strong, Rigby et al., 1999). Literature review reveals that there has been very limited application of the P-E-O Model to culturally diverse scenarios.

Figure 1: Person-Environment-Occupation Model

The authors also included a three-dimensional diagram of the P-E-O model that is a tube which is divided into cross-sectional views at particular intervals throughout a person’s lifespan to show varying degrees of overlap or ‘goodness of fit’ between person-environment-occupation over time (Law et al., 1996). The three-dimensional modelling is useful because it provides a temporal dimension which represents change in a persons’ occupational performance throughout their lifespan (see Figure 2). The concept of time is represented as linear in this model, which has social-cultural implications that is relevant to the discussion presented later in this article. It appears that the visual model was developed by therapists as a conceptual representation which was intended for application to an unlimited range of practice scenarios.  The question needs to be asked, whether visual representation is the most appropriate form of modelling.

Figure 2:    Three-dimensional diagram of P-E-O model showing occupational progression over time

Visualisation is predominant in the conceptual diagrams used in health research literature in general. It is customary to represent conceptual models through tables, histograms, pie charts, bar graphs that are readily accessible in computer software programs and easily published. For example the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods shows numerous diagrammatic ways of representing theoretical concepts (Lenger and Eppler 1977). A visualisation method is defined by Ralph Lenger and Martin Eppler (1977, 1), as “a systematic, rule-based, external, permanent, and graphic representation that depicts information in a way that is conducive to acquiring insights, developing an elaborate understanding, or communicating experiences.”

A conceptual model is able to represent the current understanding of a process of interest but this is influenced by cultural understandings and perceptions (Dayé  and De Campo). Models generally facilitate communication between people of different disciplines. Four stages have been identified in the process of constructing conceptual models (Pickett and Cadenasso 2002). Firstly, the components of the model such as specific people, environments and occupations are identified and described or recorded. The characteristics such as the geographical location, the identity of the people or virtual communities, and the designated time period are defined in order to apply the appropriate spatial and temporal scaling to the model in which peoples’ occupational performance occurs. Once this information is constructed and possibly mapped on the P-E-O Model diagram, it is then possible to articulate the possible interdependence between components and to identify constraints on behaviour of the system. The metaphor of an eco-system is sometimes used but may not be applicable in all cases. The therapist monitors how changes in the P-E-O transactions influence a person’s occupational performance to achieve goodness-of-fit between components.

Visual representation of data has limitations. Marshall McLuhan, Canadian philosopher of communication theory stated that, “…the medium is the message…that the personal and social consequences of any medium …is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology” (1964, 7). Alternatives to visualisation are sought through this study of sonification of the P-E-O Model transactions.  There may be additional components that become evident through activity analysis of playing bloogle resonators – part of critical reflection on my creative practice. Of particular interest are time, space and culture – since these factors have been described as relevant to sonification in the social sciences (Dayé and De Campo 2006). Christian Dayé and Alberto De Campo (2006, 353) state, “Our basic assumption is rather that the predominance of the human eye has obscured the perceptual capabilities of the other senses. As a consequence, they are hardly ever used in research.”

Visual Form of Bloogle Resonators
It is serendipitous that the tubular form of bloogle resonators coincides with the 3-dimensional visual representation of the P-E-O model. This facilitates explanation of the model by showing that the length of the tube depicts the persons’ occupational progression and career development over time. The model could be simulated visually by entwining three bloogle resonators to demonstrate the close inter-relationship of the person-environment-occupation components, but the plastic corrugated walls of the resonators do not allow shaping of the components which would change throughout the length of the tube. Construction of bloogle resonator tubes with more flexible materials would allow the P-E-O transactions to be physically demonstrated in accordance with change in the shape of components over monthly, yearly, seasonal, or with random occurrences according to the timescale adopted. Contrasting colours for the three tubes are important for distinguishing each of the P-E-O factors and stakeholders may have particular colour preferences as part of the artistry of their creative practice. The design of the bloogle resonators can be customised through colour choice if they are purchased off the shelf, but other features would need to be tailor-made through an individual design and manufacture process. Visual artists may assist creating a better creative product.

Sonification
As discussed, the visual form of bloogle resonators is somewhat useful, but there are greater possibilities for modelling through using them as a musical instrument which emits whirring sounds when rotated – while holding one end in the hand. Bloogle resonators can create individualised musical soundscapes through a process of sonification which will be explained further from review of literature.

Sonification is an interdisciplinary practice defined as, “the use of non-speech audio to convey information” (Kramer and Walker et al. 1999). More recently, sonification has been defined, “when sound is used as a medium that represents more than just itself” (Grond and Hermann 2012, 213). Stephen Barrass (2012a, 178) however, avoids the term ‘representation’ by introducing the concept of ‘usefulness’ into his definition: “Sonification is the design of non-verbal sounds to convey useful information.”  Barrass (2012, 178) states that, “Usefulness allows multiple sonifications of the same data for different purposes and provides a basis for evaluation, iterative development and theory building.” This design theory is helpful because it distinguishes between information and data and introduces functionality into the discussion. There are a wide range of applications of sonification in the literature that ranges from literal representation of data, more accurately termed ‘audification’; to representation of concepts or data through sound art, improvisation and musical composition which has varying degrees of aesthetic appeal.  My method of performance resembles Barrass’ (2012b) definition of ‘acoustic sonification:’ “Acoustic Sonifications are physical objects designed to make sounds that convey useful information about a dataset of some kind. Unlike other sonifications, they do not require a power supply, and the sounds are interactively produced in real time through physical interaction with an object.” 

Australian music therapist, Alan Lem reports using a form of computerised sonification with adult clients with physical disabilities (Lem and Paine 2011). The video examples by his co-author, Garth Paine show how sound technologies are responsive to peoples’ physical movements, thereby encouraging further musical expression.  Algorithms that produce the sounds are activated by various measurable factors such as range of motion and intensity of response (see http://vimeo.com/2329210).  This technological application is a way of translating clients’ body movement into musical composition that is more complex than the commercially available counterpart, the Soundbeam. Soundbeam is an electronic musical response device which provides literal sound response to body movement in front of a beam (see http://www.soundbeam.co.uk/).

The Jambot computational music agent is another interactional music system. It has been designed for real-time musical improvisation and refined through mediation between imitative and intelligent actions (Gilford and Brown 2011). These technological systems of improvisation are potentially beneficial for people that have physical disabilities or communication disorders which prevent them from conveying useful information through traditional musical instruments. Toby Gilford and Andrew Brown state that the findings of their research may contribute to understanding human-computer non-verbal communication interfaces, which means this has potential as a form of sonification as well.

Technological devices with multiple perspective hierarchies have been developed for constructing relational diagrams in audio which apply to model-making: “Overall, all participants were able to use the auditory interface to construct full diagrams that properly represented the systems they were asked to model” (Matatla and Bryan-Kinns et al. 2008, 102). Matatla and colleagues discuss the aspects of sonification that facilitated ease of use for understanding how devices work. These examples of technological devices from the literature reveals that research on sonification has generated a plethora of complex technological solutions before exploring the more basic responses that are possible from using simple musical instruments to convey useful information. Another key finding is the importance of the role of listeners in deriving meaning from sounds through creative inferences they make in the act of listening. Sonification relies on peoples’ perception. The “act of listening to music involves simultaneous changes in variables such as frequency, amplitude and spectral distribution and integrating them into a comprehensive mental image” (Ben-Tal and Berger 2004, 230).  

Andrea Polli (2012) reports that multiple identities and similarities can be represented through sonification and listeners identify patterns and detect trends which they prioritise for listening. Engaged creative listening allows processing of multiple strands of information at the same time. The temporal nature of sound makes it useful for sonification of time-oriented data which reveals recurrent patterns and trends. For example, sonification has been used effectively for representing change in annual weather patterns, and the temperature and salinity of the ocean at various depths (Polli 2012). Lorella Abenavoli (2012) reports on digital sonification methods for scaling and amplifying the seismometer-recorded vibrations and fluctuations of the Earth’s internal movements that are usually inaudible and too slow to be apprehended by the human ear. The scale modelling brings sonification of time and space together in aesthetic representation of the “Pulse of the Earth” that can be appreciated through the senses of touch and hearing. Sonification is commonly used in health practice through instruments such as the stethoscope, to listen to the functioning of body organs that are not visible (Dayé & De Campo, 2006).  

Various forms of sonification have been described by Barrass (2012a, 180):
* Sinification – numerical increases in data result in increase in frequency of a sine-tone
* MIDIfication –Various electronic orchestral instruments play notes at different volume levels, according to categorical changes in the data.
* Musification – The narrative qualities of music are used to provide sonifications related to affect, valence, arousal, or other dimensions of experience.
* Vocalisation – Vowel and other vocal sounds are synthesised to vary in response to quantitative and qualitative data.
* Iconification – Aspects of a variable may be performed through sounds that are related to the context, such as the sound of rain chosen for representing the degree of annual rainfall.
* Stream-based – Granular synthesis techniques allow variables to be separated spatially into figure-ground sounds, which reveal particular features.

Findings of Activity Analysis: Musical Performance with Bloogle Resonators
Musical performance with four professional colleagues was carried out in a conference workshop on 10 July 2013 at Queensland College of Art. This demonstrated that the first possibility of the use of the bloogle resonator is to make sounds by rotating it in circles above the head. This requires a firm grip and stabilisation of the trunk and shoulder girdle for coordination of rotator cuff, arm and hand muscle actions. The faster the bloogle resonators are rotated the higher the pitch of the tone they emit. Participants were able to easily demonstrate playing three different tones, which allows each of the different components of the person-environment-occupation to be represented by a team of people. Various postures were adopted for playing the bloogle resonators and this can be incorporated into choreography of dance and physical activity routines. Because they have the element of fun, bloogle resonators may encourage people to join in expressing themselves through spontaneously, using ad lib vocalisation and physical actions to express emotions and ideas. Participants were encouraged to move around and use this body in space as they played the instrument. This stimulates the visual, auditory, vestibular and tactile senses which may heighten participants’ level of cognitive arousal or alertness. The heightened physical activity resulted in reports of increased heart rate and respiration which may have value for incidental exercise.

The sonic potential of bloogle resonators lies in being able to use the following musical elements to depict features of time, space, and culture. The elements that can be varied with bloogle resonators include:

·       Rhythm, sound and silence, repetition

·       Volume or amplitude

·       Pitch / frequency

·       Quality of sound (timbre)

·       Spatial location

·       Body movement and coordination (physical activity)

Most importantly, music-making occurs over time and this is regulated by duration of phrases, repetition tones in rhythmic patterns, and choice of tempo or pace. This allows sonification with bloogle resonators to change in correspondence with variation of P-E-O components over time. The result is a kind of storytelling sequence, in which the bloogle resonator becomes an extension of the arm that helps participants to express themselves through gestures, sounds and silences. The movement occurs in a position and through a space that is related to the spaces used by other participants. This makes it possible to enact a time sequence of events in relation to position in space. The musical expression can thereby incorporate a multitude of person-environment-occupation transactions that can be compressed in time.

Bloogle resonators take minimal skill to play, so people can improvise musical tones to match verbal descriptions or stories which they wish to tell. This form of musical improvisation has aesthetic features which participants can strive for in the artistry of their storytelling, musical composition and choreography. A feature of musicking on bloogle resonators is that it allows people to adjust through the pace (tempo), rhythm, and cycles of their performance or and silences that they adopt. This gives a sense of control for sonic modelling that is capable of abstract ideation of cognitive and theoretical concepts. Participants were able to choose body actions and sound patterns that best communicated the concepts that they wished to convey. In the early stages of becoming familiar with bloogle resonators, participants just played around to experiment with what is possible. Symbolic representation may develop with further practice, and this could relate to cultural traditions understandings of time and more freedom in moving about to express oneself through gestures. Because sonification is a non-verbal form of communication, participants are able to represent emotions that they may not be able to fully explain through language. The act of performing music facilitates expression of an inner world which gives access to projection of feelings and abstract ideas. Musical performance is therefore an effective way of representing perceptions and attitudes toward person-environment-occupational transactions as they change over time. The audience interprets the meaning of the performance through their own perceptions and associations, thereby creating personal meaning. In tribal cultures, all people are involved in music making through playing instruments, song and dance (Blacking, 1973, 4).

Qualities of Musical Expression
Most people have access to low-technological music-making devices and could participate actively in dynamic modelling of person-environment-occupation transactions if they were given the opportunity in a suitable location. Using bloogle resonators to represent P-E-O concepts through musical performance has advantages over pure audification of computerised data because music-making is physically active, engaging, creative and interactive. Musical performance is sensitive to changes in dynamic relationships and transactions between people and environments that are situated in real time, or in virtual spatio-temporal contexts. Social participation allows musical relationships to develop over time in environments within or outside of healthcare institutions.  People can design soundscapes through recording tracks and building up electoacoustic compositions layer by layer – resulting in sonic polyphony.  Expertise in musical technologies and sonification devices may be required for more complex modelling. Innovations in cymatic synthesis are available at Stephen Barrass’ website (see http://stephenbarrass.com/). William Duckworth’s (2005) describes virtual musical interactions online which are interactive. Social networking produced new dimensions for the I-Orpheus opera performed at Southbank, Brisbane on 31 August, 2007 (see http://www.billduckworth.com/iorpheus07).

There are some layers of musical expression that may not be able to be achieved through simple musical instruments, such as bloogle resonators. For example, musical performance, costumes, stage design and dramatisation in opera can express emotions, such as love, rage, sorrow, and repressed feelings or conflict. A variety of musical devices are used, such as melodic invention for ‘word painting;’ which means to use melodies or harmony in a way that evokes the meaning of the word, or associated feelings. Melodic descending phrases may be suggestive of sighs. Melodic tones can be played in succession to express emotions, especially when chromatic harmonies are used. If musical tones are played simultaneously in chords this provide accompaniment to melodies that can be harmonious or dissonant. A cadence brings a section or piece of music to a close through ending with a final rhythmic or harmonic gesture. The closure may release tension of emotion when the dissonance resolves and moves by step to the tonal centre. Most of these more complex expressive devices require a wider range of musical instruments and expertise.

There are unlimited possibilities of interlocking musical elements which are coordinated simultaneously, or in asynchronous relationships with body movements. Ethnic groups exploit these possibilities through performance of corroborees or other cultural traditions.

Socio-cultural Considerations
Culture and historical traditions affect the sonic representation of person-environment-occupation transactions through music-making. Bloogle resonators may look like plastic toys, but they are not inert because they have potential for socio-cultural representation. This is evident in the YouTube videorecording of Canadian astronaut, Don Pettit playing what he calls “the didgeridoo,” in Science off the Sphere: Episode 9 Electric Didgeridoo (American Physical Society, 2012).  

In this video, Pettit plays the vacuum hose in a similar way to the blowing a didgeridoo – which looks similar to a bloogle resonator. Aboriginal peoples in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory are credited with developing the use of hollowed out logs for didgeridoo performance as part of their traditional song and dance customs (Neuenfeldt, 1997). The video performance evokes association with Aboriginal musical heritage and culture through the using the term ‘didgeridoo’ for the vacuum cleaner hose. Pettit is concerned with demonstrating principles of physics for a science lesson, but does not explain the socio-cultural links with intangible cultural heritage of Indigenous Australian peoples. He describes his performance as “being a musician,” and tries to dress accordingly by re-designing his space uniform, which many people found humorous, according to comments posted on the YouTube site: “These videos are hilarious and amazing” (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAsjjotszjA).

Using the vacuum cleaner hose for music-making inadvertently translocates the traditional Aboriginal use of the didgeridoo through virtual technologies to the context of the International Space Station – a small multi-cultural community of people orbiting the Earth. It is commonplace for people to play didgeridoo-like instruments in non-traditional Aboriginal contexts on the Earth (Neuenfeldt 1997).  The interpretation depends upon peoples’ past history of listening and their socio-cultural associations – influenced by their memory and previous people-environment-occupational transactions. It could be argued that this example of teaching and learning about physics occurs in a new cultural context that has not yet been negotiated with Traditional Aboriginal culture bearers, but now that may be possible through email and Twitter communication.

A contrasting musical example is Astronaut, Chris Hadfield’s original composition and performance of the “Is Someone Singing (ISS)” song which was recorded on the International Space Station and synchronised with a musical performance by the Wexford Gleeks school choir and a Canadian rock band (Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies, YouTube 2013). The song was commissioned by CBC Music California and The Coalition for Music Education in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency to advocate for music education in Canadian schools (Grossman 2013). Through global social networking, people were able to voice their opinions about this collaborative performance through tweets. Peoples described the personal significance of the performance through You Tube feedback: “This is the kind of stuff that pulls folk together from all over the globe.” “I don’t usually cry, but I did for this.”  “This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced.” “God’s gift!” “I’m feeling patriotic.” “Awe inspiring.” This online communication generated new potential for musical mediation of culture which is an aspect of people-environment-occupation transactions in the new dimension of extra-terrestrial music encounters. Numerous people stated that it brought them to tears, or to a new realisation of the connectedness of the human race on Earth and in space. Some comments were removed, so it is not possible to evaluate the full impact of the musical performance on people-environment-occupation component transactions globally. Further research is needed to prepare for future applications of music and sonification technologies to new geographical locations as people spend more time travelling and living in space. There is possibility for using the P-E-O Model more broadly than was originally envisaged by the authors in 1996. There is value in looking for new ways to represent P-E-O transactions and music-making hold unlimited potential.

Discussion
The brief account describes some of the possibilities for musical composition and improvisation on bloogle resonators to represent P-E-O model transactions. The skill level of the performers may affect how effective the musical performance is, but bloogle resonators are easy to play and access. Bloogle resonators are limited in their musical expressiveness due to the physical properties of their construction. A wider arsenal of high-technology and low-technology musical devices could be used for more expressive sonification in future research.

The interdependence between people-environment- and occupation is clearly demonstrated in performance of traditional Indigenous Australian song and dance traditions in corroborees. The context and social relations determine the meanings and associations of performance on bloogle resonators, and even a didgeridoo that was made from a vacuum cleaner hose. Various musical cultural traditions could be explored to systematically evaluate their potential for shaping and supporting peoples’ rendition of person-environment-occupation transactions. Further research is required to determine which sonic modalities of expression are most useful for artistic practice, therapy and education which to date has relied so strongly on text and visual diagrams in Western societies. Performance ethnography has been described as an educational method for exploring and enacting social relations, cultural connections and political factors (Alexander 2005, Denzin, 2003). This opens channels of communication for negotiating musical culture and heritage in different contexts. Bloogle resonators are a simple instrument to use for experimentation, but a wider range of musical instruments, song and dance may facilitate better understanding of the P-E-O model. In conclusion, this study has confirmed that creative arts practice and sonification technologies may have application to modelling person-environment-occupational transactions.

Recommendations for future research and practice
In the future, it is important to consider the potential of sonification and musical collaboration in various contexts to advance teaching and learning objectives. Song and dance can be used to facilitate social relationships of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, and people connected through remote and virtual information communication technologies. The socio-cultural impact of digital music technologies need to be carefully considered and possibly negotiated for use in teaching and learning programs. Bloogle resonators and didgeridoo-like instruments have wide-ranging potential to extend socio-cultural relationships and to represent concepts or models. The significance of sonification lies in the potential for stakeholders to participate and to share ideas through an active learning model-making process in a suitable, supportive environment. This creative collaboration builds capacity for relationships that enhance environmental and social awareness, thereby promoting changes in social and cultural practices (Polli 2012).

Sonic modelling may result in a richer inter-disciplinary blending of art and science. Suzanne Peloquin (1989, 219) states that, “The art of practice in occupational therapy is intrinsically centered on relationships, on the qualities that make relationships meaningful and on the meaning of occupation in a life.” There is a role for occupational therapists to use participatory music-making in their practice to enhance meaningful representation of concepts, along with the benefits of music-making that have been described in research literature (Williams 2013, McDonald and Kreutz et al. 2012). Artists can contribute to design and adaptation of musical instruments to improve capacity for musical expression and sonification. Occupational therapists, musicians, designers and creative arts practitioners have a role to play in improving the design of bloogle resonators. Music educators may also assist in developing peoples’ musical skills so they are better able to represent person-environment-occupation transactions. A wider range of musical instruments and sonification methods are recommended to provide greater choices in musical performance. Further exploration and activity analysis of a wider range of sonification modalities is suggested for future research.

Conclusion
Answering the question posed, bloogle resonators have some capacity to represent time, space, and culture through the Person-Environment-Occupation Model, but further practical research is needed to maximise musical expression of personal P-E-O scenarios in relation to context. In summary, there are at several possible uses of bloogle resonators that can contribute to model development and action learning in arts, education and occupational therapy practice. Bloogle resonators can be used for musical expression, and increasing peoples’ level of engagement with physical and creative activities which stimulate sensory-motor responses and facilitate interactive communication. The second use of the instrument is for visual modelling of the Person-Environment-Occupation model. Finally, it has been demonstrated that bloogle resonators are not just inanimate objects, but signifiers of intangible musical heritage and culture. Musical performance on bloogle resonators therefore can have multiple meanings. A new musical performative environment has been described on the International Space Station which challenges occupational therapists to explore the old and new spatio-temporal dimensions of dynamic modelling with respect for cultural diversity on the Earth, and even in extra-terrestrial musical encounters of a teaching and learning kind.

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Associate Professor Stephen Barrass, University of Canberra, Professor Andrew Brown and anonymous reviewers from Griffith University, Australia for helpful review and feedback this article.

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