Computers and Creativity

"This book is a brilliant contribution to the literature on creativity in general and the role of computers for fostering and understanding creativity in particular. It presents first a wide range of fascinating projects in the visual arts and music before plunging into theoretical issues concerning the nature of aesthetics and the cognitive processes underlying creativity. Every contribution in this book contains diamonds of novel deep insight, fascinating experiments, and downright good ideas for future work. The cross references and links between the different articles, the added discussion, and the edited conversations between the authors make this book more than the sum of its parts. Computers have already shaken up how art is being conceived, produced and distributed, and this book shows that this evolution can and will go much further than what most people think. It is required reading for everyone involved in the creative arts and interested in the role of technology towards shaping its future." Luc Steels, Professor and Head, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Paris, France

"A wonderful collection of articles from some of the best in the field. The book fantastically illustrates what an exciting time this is for the interaction between computers and the creative process. Computers are really starting to surprise the people who program them." Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford

"Full of information and insights about the creative partnerships between computers, artists and musicians, Computers and Creativity is a timely book that does not shy away from tackling tough questions like where the creativity lies in art made by machines and how improvisation between human and non-human performers can be modelled. Along the way the reader is challenged to rethink assumptions about creativity and question whether a future 'genius' or 'virtuoso' might emerge from code. The book will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationship between creativity and computation." Jane Prophet, Professor of Art and Interdisciplinary Computing, City University of Hong Kong

"If I had to pick just one point out of this richly intriguing book, it would be something that the editors stress in their introduction: that these examples of computer art involve creative computing as well as creative art." Margaret A. Boden, OBE, Professor of Cognitive Science, University of Sussex

"This is a challenging, thought provoking, and important book. Challenging because it forces us to confront issues about our relationship with intelligent machines; thought provoking because it asks many difficult questions, some of which do not as yet have answers; and important because it tackles the issues of machine intelligence and artificial creativity in a non-trivial, non-hysterical profound manner. ... Refreshingly there is no techno-messianic hype at all in this book. All chapters are written by leading researchers (25 in all) working at universities, literally at the coalface one might say. This approach leaves no room for flights of science fantasy and ill-founded speculation, which I have found is almost endemic in much of the Extropian style literature regarding human-machine integration. Considering the complexity of the subject matter and its theoretical underpinning, every chapter is extremely well written in a way that makes the book thoroughly accessible to expert and educated layperson alike. ... I thoroughly recommend this book to the widest possible range of practitioners, theorists and students in the field of artificial intelligence related to creativity and the arts." (Rob Harle, February 2013, Leonardo)

Jon McCormack is an electronic media artist and researcher in computing. He holds a degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Art (Film and Television) from Swinburne University and a PhD in Computer Science from Monash University, Melbourne. He is currently Associate Professor in Computer Science, an ARC Australian Research Fellow and director of the Centre for Electronic Media Art (CEMA) at Monash University. His research spans generative art and design, evolutionary systems, creativity, visualisation, interaction, machine learning, L-systems and developmental models. His artworks have been widely exhibited at leading galleries, museums and symposia, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Tate Gallery (Liverpool, UK), ACM SIGGRAPH (USA), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia). He is the recipient of 16 awards for new media art and research including prizes at Ars Electronica (Austria), Images du Futur (Canada), New Voices, New Visions (USA), Alias/Wavefront (USA), The John Lansdown Award for Interactive Media (Europe/UK), and Nagoya Biennial (Japan). Mark d'Inverno holds an MA and MSc in Mathematics from Oxford University and a PhD from University College London in Artificial Intelligence. He is Professor of Computer Science at Goldsmiths, University of London and for four years between 2007 and 2011 was head of the Department of Computing which has championed interdisciplinary research and teaching around computers and creativity for nearly a decade. He has published over 100 articles including books, journal and conference articles and led research projects in a diverse range of fields relating to computer science including multi-agent systems, systems biology, art, music and social media. During the final editing of this book he took a research sabbatical shared between the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. He is currently the principal investigator or co-investigator  on a range of EU and UK projects spanning community building, sharing social experiences, inspiring creativity, cultural engagement and music education. He is a critically acclaimed jazz pianist and composer and over the last 25 years has led a variety of successful bands in a range of different musical genres.