“Reimagining Misuse as Creative Practice: the Impressions and Implications of Usage Norms on Digital Artists”. Li, I.*, Chen, A. S.*, Rawn, E., Almeda, S., Hartmann, B., Li, J. ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2025.

Digital artists use creativity support tools guided by their ideas of “intended use” and therefore “misuse”—but what does misuse mean in creative practice? To discover what constitutes misuse and what creative contexts call for misuse, we interviewed 20 expert creative practitioners across eight visual art disciplines. We identify five sources of normativity which form conventions of misuse: traditional practices, educational institutions, industry norms, online communities, and tools themselves. We surface why artists defy norms and misuse creative software by exploring how software apathy affects tool engagement, how tool genealogies and personal histories impact artists’ practices, and how artists prioritize practical and professional needs during the creative process. Alongside traditional definitions, we offer artists’ individual perspectives on what misuse means and its relevance to their creative practice. By understanding artists as “mis-users,” we present an opportunity to revise how we design for using and misusing creativity support tools.