Creativity and Computers
Margaret A. Boden
University of Sussex
This course studies the nature of creativity from
the points of view of philosophy, psychology, and AI (artificial intelligence).
One can ask a number of different questions about creativity, but the core
question considered here is how creative ideas are generated: how is it
possible for novel ideas to arise in someone's mind? Three main ways are
distinguished: combinational creativity, exploratory creativity, and
transformational creativity. These three types of creativity are examined in
relation to human examples in the arts and sciences, to computer models of
creativity, and to (generative) computer art. In addition, various
philosophical problems relating to computer art are discussed.
Lecture
1: What is Creativity?
Required
M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms: Prologue ("In a Nutshell"), and Chaps. 1-5.
Optional Reading:
S. Schaffer, "Making Up Discovery", in M. A. Boden (1994). Dimensions of Creativity, pp. 14-51.
R. J. Sternberg (ed.), The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. (Dip and skim.)
Lecture 2: Combinational Creativity and Computers
Required
M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms: Chapter 6, and pp. 305-308.
K. Binsted and G. D. Ritchie, "Computational Rules for Punning Riddles", Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 10 (1997), 25-76.
Optional Reading:
M. A. Boden,
"Creativity and Conceptual Art", in P. Goldie and E. Schellekens (eds.), The Philosophy
of Conceptual Art, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2007, pp. 216-237.
Lecture 3: Exploratory Creativity and Computers
Required
M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms: Chapters 7-8, 12.
Optional Reading:
Cohen, H., ’A Million Millennial Medicis’, in L. Candy and E. Edmonds (2002) Explorations in Art and Technology, pp. 91-104. D. Cope (2001) Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style, pp. 93-109. NB You only need to skim this, to get the general idea.
PLUS .... other items
drawn from the Bibliography of M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms.
Lecture 4: Evolutionary Art
Required
M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms: pp. 229-232.
S. C. Todd & W. Latham, Evolutionary Art and Computers, London: Academic Press, 1992. (Skim.)
Optional Reading:
K. Sims, ’Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics’, Computer Graphics, 25:4 (1991), 319-28.
M. Whitelaw, Metacreation: Art And Artificial Life, London: MIT Press, 2004.
M. A. Boden, "Is Metabolism Necessary?," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 50 (1999): 231-248. (NB This item is relevant only if you read the Whitelaw book, above.)
Lecture 5: Philosophical Problems in Computer Art
Essential Reading:
M. A. Boden (2006). Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science: 13.iv.b; 13.vi.c.
M. A. Boden (2004). The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms: Chapter 11.
O’Hear, A. (1995), ’Art and Technology: An Old Tension’, in R. Fellows (ed.), Philosophy and Technology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 143-158.
Optional Reading:
D. C. Dennett, "Collision Detection, Muselot, and Scribble: Some Reflections on Creativity", in VM, pp. 283-292.
D. R. Hofstadter, ’Staring Emmy Straight in the Eye – And Doing My Best Not to Flinch’, in D. Cope (2001) Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style, pp. 33-82. (See also his "A Few Standard Questions and Answers", pp. 293-305.)
D. Cope, "Response to Hofstadter", in Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style, 83-92, D. Cope, on why he destroyed Emmy’s 25-year data-base, in CMMS, pp. 360-6.
M. A. Boden, "Stillness as Autonomy", in S. Worden, L. Green, and P. Thomas (eds.), Proceedings of Computers in Art and Design Education (CADE) Conference, Stillness (Perth), September 2007. Published as a CD-ROM (ISBN 1 74067 530 4).
M. A. Boden, "Authenticity and Computer Art", Digital Creativity, 18:1 (2007), 3-10.
** M. A. Boden, "Aesthetics and Interactive Art", in C. Makris, R. L.
Chrisley, R. W. Clowes, and M. A. Boden (eds.), Art, Body, Embodiment, (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, in press).
** This item may not
be published by the time of the Summer School.
Margaret A. Boden
Margaret A. Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex. She is a member of the Academia Europaea, a Fellow (and past Vice-President) of the British Academy, a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and a past Chairman of Council of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. She holds degrees in medical sciences, philosophy, and psychology (including a Cambridge ScD and a Harvard PhD), and three honorary Doctorates (from Sussex, Bristol, and the Open University). In the New Year Honours list of 2002 she was awarded an OBE "for services to cognitive science." Her writing has been translated into 20 foreign languages, and she has given lectures, and media-interviews, across North and South America, Europe, India, the USSR, and the Pacific. Her latest books are "The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms" (2nd edn., expanded, Routledge: 2003) and "Mind As Machine: A History of Cognitive Science" (Oxford University Press: 2006). She has two children and four grandchildren, and lives in Brighton.