James L.Alty (Back)
The Role of Error in Creativity: An Example from Music

Error is usually regarded as an undesirable outcome of normal activity. We collide with other people, we reason illogically, we misread articles and we forget appointments. When the errors are minor ,we usually regard these errors as irritating deviations from our intended activity. When they are serious we try to legislate to ensure that the situation which caused the error cannot happen again. However, in certain circumstances, errors lead us into new situations from which we can benefit. They provide a new viewpoint, a new juxtaposition of events or relationships, from which we may derive considerable benefit or a new way of doing things.

In creative activities such as Science, error has played a long as distinguished role as a source for new ideas. In Science, for example, we have Faraday discovering Electromagnetic Induction by accident, Roentgen discovering X-rays when his photographic plates were fogged unexpectedly, and Lord Rayleigh discovering the inert gases when his calculations would not add up.

Whereas in the Scientific field the role of error in creativity has been acknowledged on many occasions (even if not thoroughly studied), the impact of error on creative activities in the arts, whilst occasionally acknowledged, has not really been studied seriously. This is probably because, in contrast to Science, the creative process is more chaotic and error is an integral part of the creative process. Scientists usually have very clear goals, so that any deviations in their workplan are quickly detected. In Art this is not usually so.

In musical composition there are few instances in which the role of error has been acknowledged or even discussed. One of the most likely places for error to occur is when the composer tries out some preformed ideas on an instrument (usually a keyboard), or when a performer is improvising in concert (for example in jazz). Wrong notes will be played which in most cases will be ignored. But in certain circumstances could change the direction of composition by generating an exciting new idea. The execution of ideas on, say, a keyboard, does provide a very fertile ground for new ideas, because most errors will be apparently minor deviations from the planned activity, and therefore will provide acceptable branching out points for new ideas (i.e. not demand too big a jump in audience comprehension).

This paper examines the role of error in creative musical composition by following through the creation of a piece of music, identifying when errors have changed the direction of composition and assessing their effect. It examines the nature and characteristics of errors which affect composition, and tries to establish why other errors have no effect ?

The impact of errors on creativity is related to short term and semantic memory implications for listeners, and to their capacity for creating deviations from the composer's creativity corridor (Alty, 1995).

REFERENCES
Alty, J.L., (1995). Navigating through Compositional Space: The Creativity Corridor. LEONARDO, Volume 28, Number 3, pp 215-220.

James Ambach and Alexander Repenning (Back)
Puppeteers and Directors: Supporting Artistic Design by Combining Direct-Manipulation and Delegation

Creating art can be seen as creative exploration through a design space defined by the artist and the tools. Artistic tools such as brushes and chisels are passive, stressing direct manipulation interaction that leaves exploration to the artist. If tools were more autonomous, creativity could be enhanced by allowing the artist to delegate aspects of exploration. We describe a software environment called Agentsheets that combines direct manipulation and delegation into an interaction scheme called participatory theater. The advantages of this approach are described in the context of two drawing applications, Art Pals and Art Dwarves, that involve the computer more actively in exploration.

Roy Ascott (Back)
Networks of the Mind: Art and the Emergent Noetic Culture

The technological amplification of cognition and perception is leading to the emergence of a new human faculty, cyberception. Human interaction through telematic systems is leading to the emergence of a hypercortex, a world-mind. As consciousness becomes the central issue of art, a noetic culture is forming in which the technology, science and ethics of mind determine its overarching discourse. Representation and expression are giving way to connectivity and emergence as the formative principles of creativity, calling for an aesthetics of apparition.The application of artificial intelligence to architecture will lead to the creation of cyburbia, located between the virtual and the real. When your Web page is made up please make hyperlinks to full texts of mine which are on the CAiiA website. The hotspots in the above text are: "cyberception" "aesthetics of apparition" Please have your Webmaster/designer contact the caiiamind webmaster, Leo Barnard (lbarnard@gwent.ac.uk), for the precise links into the appropriate texts of mine.

Heiner Benking (Back)
Viewpoint, Generation, Transportation and Composition

In order to intersect in a transdisciplinary and transcultural sense, within, between and beyond domains, we need other vehicles, other modes of motion and mental mobility and a framework for orientation. In this paper, we propose a reference and representation space for subjects and objects, real and imaginary, abstract and fictive. The Panorama utilizes spaces as bodies or knowledge or meta-knowledge, a space to mark even the things we leave blank and by using metaphorics or orientation and exploration and by becoming accustomed to realms we can grasp mentally as we are used to grasping objects physically : in short, a medium between concepts and context.

The notion of space is common across cultures as people experience space in early childhood. The Panorama combines SPACES into one composite 3xSpace/Time Panorama or ThinkSPACE, getting away from thinking within single concepts and boxes, but finding common structures and transferring knowledge and meta-knowledge. Such a movement enables an exchange of positions and perspectives, allows us to discuss new avenues into cross-disciplinary areas in subjects such as education, management, organization, philosophy

Stephen Bell (Back)
Towards a Virtual Reality Aesthetic Programming Interface

The Virtual Reality Aesthetic Programming Interface (VRAPI) is intended to be used for the aesthetic pleasure of programming within an immersive graphics environment; the programming and its immediate effects will be ends in themselves. Animated graphical shapes with apparently organic behaviours will be used to represent the programs and data which will, in turn, control the behaviour of graphical shapes and sounds. The intention is that when the project is completed users will be able to develop a playful relationship with the VRAPI and its related programs. The VRAPI should, if it is successful be perceived as a genius loci.

Alan Bridges and Dimitrios Charitos (Back)
On Architectural Design in Virtual Environments

This paper discusses precedents for the design of virtual environments (VEs). The domains investigated are architectural design and film theory. It is suggested that these domains may form the background for the consideration of possible metaphors for the design of VEs.

Firstly, the paper considers the use of architectural design knowledge in the design of VEs. Differences between VEs and physical environments (PEs) are also considered, for the purpose of identifying the limitations of such use. Secondly, the paper investigates the use of film related studies for enhancing our conception or movement and time in a VE.

Armin Bruderlin (Back)
Supporting the Creative Process of Human Figure Animation

The computer animation of articulated models such as human figures can be regarded as a complex synthesis task much like composing a musical piece or designing a new product. Developing computer animation tools requires a sound understanding of both this creative process as well as the animation task itself. Most current commercial animation packages focus on providing useful but "low-level" functions to create, modify and compose human movement. This paper proposes a hierarchical approach to human figure animation which incorporates knowledge on several levels about movement and motion processing in order to support the creative process and facilitate the motion specification task.

Ed Burton (Back)
Artificial Innocence:

Interactions between the study of children's drawing and artificial intelligence The study of children's drawing shared a commonality of ideas with artificial intelligence (AI) during the cognitive revolution. In particular they both relied on the information processing metaphor of mind. This interaction is represented in a computer programme called Rose (Representation Of Spatial Experience) that produces child-like drawings. The information processing metaphor did not easily accommodate development which was subsequently neglected by drawing research. AI has since moved on to study dynamic systems that actually do develop. Here a computer implementation is proposed that will represent a potentially fruitful interaction between the study of children's drawing development and this new AI.

Here is a link to one of my own web pages which describes my work in more detail: http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/CEA/CIDevelopment/PhD/Ed/home.html

Linda Candy (Back)
Understanding Creativity: An Empirical Approach

This paper is concerned with research into human creativity with a view to understanding the requirements for computer support. The approach is to examine the human creative process by way of case studies in different fields of activity. In the light of the results and their relationship to other research, the implications for the design of computer support for creativity are discussed. General requirements include support for visualisation, knowledge intensive tasks and collaborative work.

Imogen Casebourne (Back)
The Grandmother Program: A Hybrid System for Automated Story Generation

Grandmother is a hybrid system for automatic story generation, designed to investigate the theory that two existing approaches to story generation can be successfully combined. This paper argues that the story grammar and planning paradigms are compatible because they can be seen as embodying different parts of a single account of the processes involved in story generation. Though limited in itself, Grandmother demonstrates that research using hybrid systems is both possible, and if the above hypothesis is correct, likely to be more fruitful than the further development of either paradigm on its own.

The Grandmother program can generate a wide range of simple stories. All of these conform to the structural template provided by Pemberton's story grammar, and all conform to the rules of the genre as they are specified in the storyworld database. In doing so it lends weight to the theory that in the task of regularly generating interesting text, a hybrid system might be superior to either approach on its own. The focus of investigation was the mechanisms which produce and order the events which constitute a story, based on the assumption that these events need not be conceived linguistically, and that other cognitive processes act to turn the sequence of events into reportable speech. The system would be improved by the introduction of a lexicon, together with relevant grammatical rules to produce English sentences. Such an extension should result in a vast improvement in the quality of the text, but no change in the story sequence.

Richard Coyne (Back)
Creativity as Commonplace

In this essay I identify the major sources of our intrigue with creativity, and open to question some of the basic presuppositions about creativity presented by cognitive science. The major challenge comes from pragmatic and hermeneutical concepts of thought and interpretation.

Nigel Cross (Back)
Creativity in Design: Not Leaping but Bridging

The `creative leap' in which a novel concept emerges - perhaps quite suddenly - as a potential design solution, is widely regarded as a characteristic feature of creative design. This paper is based on an example of such a creative leap that occurred during a recorded study of the activity of a small design team. The background to the creative leap is reconstructed from the recorded material. Conventional explanatory models of creativity are reviewed for insight into the example. Some differences between theoretical views and actual design practice are identified. The process of creative design is akin to building a bridging concept between problem and solution, rather that the usually assumed `creative leap'.

David Eaton (Back)
A Programme for Computer Assisted Learning in Art and Design

The integration of Art and Design education with digital technology may take many forms of expression, from the use as "tools" at an immediate level to the creation of new media types. This poster will start to examine the potential of utilising multi-media as a source of reference for teaching contextual and research based work and there by integrating visual resources within a digital form. It will work within the parameters of the white paper published on the future of education in Scotland which will mean the instigation of a whole new educational structure at post sixteen, in the form of "Higher Stills". The supporting poster will take as a model the Glasgow Architect "Greek" Thomson and storyboard ideas and solutions based on support material for a student studying an Advanced Higher in Art and Design.

Ernest A. Edmonds and Linda Candy (Back)
Supporting the Creative User: A Criteria-based Approach to Interaction Design

The paper is concerned with the design of interactive systems for creative users. It draws upon results from design research and studies of creativity. The role of criteria in design is discussed and a criteria-based modelling approach to interactive system design is proposed. In this paper, we make a case for adopting criteria-based models that support the designer of computer systems for creative tasks. The criteria-based model expresses criteria that may be used to evaluate the design as opposed to task modelling, a representation form from which one might hope to deduce the design. One aim of adopting the criteria-based modelling approach is to re-orientate the way we look at requirements at present: for example, whether they match the cognitive characteristics of the user in a given situation should be an important consideration.

William Godwin, Päivi Mäkirinne-Crofts and Sohrab Saadat (Back)
Objects in Transition: A Spatial Paradigm for Creative Design

This paper describes the location of creative activity as an extended spatial domain. This Transitional Space, posited by the psycho-analyst Donald Winnicott to lie between the creative subject and the objective world, is here realised as a geometric paradigm that supports investigation of cognitive and other resources, needed to understand creative practice. Arising from research into Fashion Design, the theory presented has been applied in analysing computer support for creative work. The metaphor of an extended physical space can encompass the transition of ideas into actuality, thereby integrating the objective scientific approach with the subjective research traditions in the humanities.

Oliver Hoffman and Martin Kollingbaum (Back)
Creativity as Transformation : Multi-Agent Systems and Human Cognition

Creative processes use information about the environment, information which is generated using existing models. Being creative, these processes produce original and unexpected results and require an adaptation of the underlying model. In this position paper, we describe a general framework as to how the reflexive relationship of information and the structures which create it can be taken into account during the construction of software systems for supporting creativity.

Fré Ilgen (Back)
Design as connection between thinking and acting: an artist's view

The process of designing architecture, industrial products or fine art objects all concern the definition of space. This implies we have to understand those aspects of our reality-perception that allow the experience of "space", undoubtedly involving our thinking-process. This paper is a personal statement in which it is hypothesized that we need to design objects in our projective field as essential part of our process of self-argumentation.

Akihiro Kubota (Back)
Abduction Machine Project

This paper is an overview of the Abduction Machine Project that is in progress at RACE (Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. In this project, we are focusing on the process of human inference for synthesis, referred to as "abduction" (hypothesis generation). The Abduction Machines are experimental apparatus to observe and study the process of abduction. There are two main topics in this project. The first is to study the inter-organization mechanism of humans and the Internet technologies that create a new field of languages. The second is to observe the process of collaborative abduction by teams that include artists, designers, and engineers distributed over a wide area. The Abduction Machine-1 (AbM-1) that is now under development is composed of the following two main tools.

- Mental World Browser (MWB)

- Physical World Transmitter (PWT)

The MWBs are WWW-based visualization tools of the human mental world. The PWT is equipment for transmitting and processing shape information. Its input and output devices are a 3D-laser scanner and a stereo-laser lithography machine, respectively. The WWW is the media linking the two devices. Through the WWW, the MWBs and the PWT can complement each other.

In collaboration with the artists of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, we are designing the AbM-1 to be furniture. As a flexible and easily reconfigurable piece of furniture, the AbM-1 has the ability to turn the familiar into the unfamiliar with its capacity for daily changes of configuration.

Bryan Lawson and Shee Ming Loke (Back)
Computer, Words and Pictures

The paper discusses the problem of CAD in architectural design from the point of view of aiding creativity. It argues that so far there is no real evidence that this has been achieved. An explanation for this is offered and the authors suggest that more work needs to be done on how we hold conversations about design. The authors also conclude that, at least until design conversations are better understood, we should concentrate less on pictures and more on words. A first attempt to develop a computer aided design conversation system is described.

Jeremy Leach (Back)
Making Sense of the World: Temporal and Spatial Perception and the Function of Art

In this paper I present a general theory linking the pleasure gained from art and music to the unconscious reinforcement of learnt associations. I suggest that this mechanism has arisen through evolution to provide humans with a survival advantage. As a result I argue that the structure in visual art and music can be explained as an attempt to maximise knowledge learnt on multiple hierarchical levels. I discuss how this theory could be used scientifically to automatically generate original works of music, decorative art and, with further research. all types of fine art and sculpture.

Kazushi Nishimoto, Shinji Abe and Kenji Mase (Back)
Effectively Heterogeneous Information Extraction to Stimulate Divergent Thinking

Conflicts in different concepts are often useful in creating new ideas. We have proposed an outsider model in which an artificial agent provides "effectively-heterogeneous" information to support human divergent-orientated discussions. Subjective experiments using a prototype system based on the outsider model and a detailed analysis on results confirming that the outsider model can extract information containing hidden relevance, i.e., "effective-heterogeneousness", are presented.

Mike North (Back)
Computer Assisted Works: Working Process

The artist discusses his computer assisted works which explore two-dimensional spatial contradiction and ambiguity. Working processes used in several series are described together with thoughts on the positive contribution computer software can make to image generation.

I first started using computers to generate images in December 1987 during participating in a computer aided design course. My earlier work, mainly in the form of paintings, drawings and prints, was based upon the exploration of two-dimensional spatial ambiguity and contradiction. These works were informed by 'perceptually reversing' and 'impossible figures' in part derived from Gestalt psychological research and works of the American Abstract Illusionist painters of the late 1960s and early 1970s. I made several series of works (1), (2) between leaving art college in 1965 and 1987 but only one of them,the Diamond Series , has been further developed through the use of computing. The following Triangulation, Perceptual Inversion, Dutch Rose, Broken Circle and Variations on an Untitled Silkscreen of 1971 series of works were developed extensively using computer software from previously drawn and printed images. The more recent Planet Series however, were initially created with the use of computer software. The paper discusses the development of some of the computer assisted works in greater detail.

Niall O'Loughlin (Back)
Universal Creative Sound Technology: Stockhausen's Telemusik and Hymnen

Electronic music in its early years, the 1950s, was often considered 'unmusical', 'synthetic' and 'impersonal'. The aim of early composers of electronic music, notably the German, Karlheinz Stockhausen (b1928), was to bridge an apparently irreconcilable divide between live 'expressive' music and 'synthetic' and impersonal technologically-produced music. This applied both to the composer (the creative problem) and to the listener (the cognitive problem). The main methods involved used the techniques of traditional live music in electronic composition and those of electronic composition in live music, and of creating works which use both media, with a constant interaction between them. The aim in this paper is to show how Stockhausen achieved this synthesis of conflicting sounds in the 1960s by a sophisticated application of these methods in the works Telemusik and Hymnen.

Rafael Pérez Y Pérez (Back)
Creativity in Writing

This paper describes a computational model of creativity in writing which attempts to complement and extend previous models based on problem solving. It introduces the concepts of Engaged and Reflective states and points out the necessity of studying the interaction and rhythm between them.

Patricia Railing (Back)
Malevich said: 'Art is Cogntion'

The painter's artistic tools are colour and line. With them, he transforms his perception and sensation of the world into an object. This object reveals a transition from sensation to knowing, from creation to cognition.

Vassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich wrote about the functions of colour and line in art. For both artists, they were a grammar of the soul and rational instruments with which the artist creates by "naming" his world. For Malevich, the line was also a sign that reveals the artist's feeling and thinking, his creativity and his cognitive process of his world, his cultural time and place.

Klaus Schmid (Back)
Towards Creative AI Systems: A Psychology-Based Approach

In this paper, I propose several approaches for providing current AI systems with a higher level of creativity. These proposals are based on a comparison of human creativity with AI systems. For performing this comparison a model of information processing in the creative process has been developed, based on a review of psychological studies and models. An overview of this model is also given in this paper.

Eileen Slarke (Back)
Intersections '95: A Poetic Intersection of Art and Science

The Natural Forces Kinetic Sculpture Competition was organised by ANZES in association with the "Solar '94" conference "Secrets of the Sun". The judges included Professor David Suzuki and artist Ken Unsworth. The sculpture was judged on innovation, kinetic effect and artistic merit. The aim of the competition was to promote the immaginative exploration of natural energy applications through the combination of artistic endeavour and scientific thought. The object was to produce a sculpture which used one or more natural energy sources (such as sun, wind or tide) to produce movement. My solar powered winning entry investigated intersections of art, literature, science, technology and design.

Masanori Sugimoto, Koichi Hori and Setsuo Ohsuga (Back)
A System for Supporting Researchers' Creativity by Visualizing Different Viewpoints

In this paper we describe a system for assisting researchers' creativity by visualizing different viewpoints on a certain research topic.The system has a text database composed of journal and conference papers.It can elicit the viewpoints of the papers automatically and visualizes the semantic relations between them. We have carried out several user studies --
1) creative research aid,
2) communication / group work aid,
3) information retrieval
---and confirmed that the system is effective for our purpose.

Eric W Tatham (Back)
Clio: A Constraint-Based Interface for Creative Domains

Constraint satisfaction techniques provide useful computational tools. In particular, constraint-based interfaces have application in assisting users when working on creative tasks. However, the generation and manipulation of appropriate constraints provides a substantial hurdle, particularly for novices who may lack the necessary prerequisite knowledge. Described, is the basis for work in progress to develop, "Clio", an interface incorporating an analogical inferencing tool which can allow users, whether or not they have explicit domain knowledge, to utilise simple examples to direct purposeful searches in any open-ended domains for which constraint-based descriptions are possible.

Peter Thomas (Back)
Visual Interaction as Art

The possible relationship between 'art' and user interface design is the starting point for work described in this paper on the possibilities of using techniques and concepts from a particular artistic genre directly in user interface design. The intention was to see if the techniques of the cubist genre could be employed to provide richness and depth to visual representations in human-computer interfaces. The notion was sparked off by the observation that one of the most ubiquitous elements of visual interfaces - the 'icon' - was in many ways a very shallow concept, particularly from the point of view of its information content.

Sarah Thompson(Back)
Looking at the Ceiling

Through the continuous proportion of human computer interaction, where the treatment of form and idea becomes a more direct treatment of mind and body, the technologically enhanced body can be regarded as the medium. This interactivity has much in common with performance art and oral storytelling. As humans are affected emotionally and psychically by their engagement with computers, it is appropriate to use the archetypes of fantasy and proportion to develop better relationships between human and computer, and especially between artist and computer in their production of art.

Guy c. JulesVan Belle (Back)
CAMER Research and Young Farmers Claim Future

Guy Van Belle's work can be viewed on his WWW pages - http://dewey.rug.ac.be/home.html and http://www.innet.net/isdm/

John A Waterworth (Back)
Creativity and Sensation: The Case for 'Synaesthetic Media'

The most salient and vital aspect of interacting with computer systems is consistently overlooked. That is the importance of computer systems as perceptual rather than conceptual tools. Insofar as people interact with them, computer systems function primarily as sensual transducers, which I term 'synaesthetic media', and not as so-called 'cognitive artifacts'. Synaesthetic media are the result of focusing design efforts on the sensational possibilities of human-computer interaction (HCI). My claim is that such computer tools can serve as powerful supporters of human creativity. Rather than expending more effort on the fruitless quest for 'cognitive artifacts', we need to recognise that we are already creating synaesthetic media and to direct our HCI design efforts accordingly.

Igor Yevin and Svetlana Apjonova (Back)
Perception of Attractions and Cognitive Dissonance

The paper presents synergetical analysis the concept of artistic influenceessence, suggested by S. Eisenstein in 1923 ("Principle of Attraction"). Discussing is focused on examination of functional structure of some types of attractions and it is shown that any attraction might be reduced to some kind of virtual phase transition or to metastable state between two phases. A some new aspects of cognitive dissonance theory arised by perception of attraction and possibilities of activation of personal creative abilities are discussed.


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