Alan Dorin

Promoting Creative Design in Interactive Evolutionary Computation

We use a new measure of creativity as a guide in an interactive evolutionary art task and tie the results to natural language usage of the term “creative.” Following previous work, we explore a tractable definition of creativity, one emphasizing the novelty of systems, and its addition to an interactive application. We next introduce a generative ecosystemic art system, EvoEco, an agent-based pixel-level means of generating images. EvoEco is used as a component of an online survey which asks users to evolve a pleasing image and then rank the success of the process and its output. Evolutionary search is augmented with the creativity measure, and compared with control groups augmented with either random search or a measure of phenotypic distance. We show that users consistently rate the creativity measure-enhanced version as more “creative” and “novel” than other search techniques. We further derive additional insights into appropriate forms of genetic representation and pattern space-traversal in an interactive evolutionary algorithm.

Aesthetic Fitness and Artificial Evolution for the Selection of Imagery from the Mythical Infinite Library

Aesthetic selection and artificial evolution have been two of the more successful companions introduced to the toolbox of electronic image-makers in recent years. This paper examines the niche in which this technique, often associated with the simulation of biological processes, has positioned itself and some of the reasons for its success. Some remarks concerning the meaningfulness of a users search for images through a genetic space are made and the relationship of this search to traditional artistic practice is examined. Suggestions on how to link other Artificial Life techniques, especially those involving self-organizing and self-assembling systems, with aesthetic evolution and electronic art are also made.

Synthetic Population Dynamics: A Model of Household Demography

Computer-simulated synthetic populations are used by researchers and policy makers to help understand and predict the aggregate behaviour of large numbers of individuals. Research aims include explaining the structural and dynamic characteristics of populations, and the implications of these characteristics for dynamic processes such as the spread of disease, opinions and social norms. Policy makers planning for the future economic, healthcare or infrastructure needs of a population want to be able to evaluate the possible effects of their policies. In both cases, it is desirable that the structure and dynamic behaviour of synthetic populations be statistically congruent to that of real populations. Here, we present a parsimonious individual-based model for generating synthetic population dynamics that focuses on the effects that demographic change have on the structure and composition of households.

The Virtual Ecosystem as Generative Electronic Art

This paper proposes four desirable attributes of processes to be applied in generative electronic art. By example, it then demonstrates that the virtual ecosystem in its entirety is a process with many of these desirable attributes. The paper contrasts this process with the use of cellular automata. It outlines a number of generative artworks with which the author has been involved that utilize the virtual ecosystem, and discusses their pros and cons in the context of generative art. The paper suggests means by which the application of the four desirable attributes may extend the creative possibilities for these works.

Generative processes and the electronic arts

This paper gives a personal perspective on the application and relevance of generative processes to art production. This view is that of a computer programmer, rather than that of a user of computer programs written (or hardware constructed) by others. The programmer is in the unique position of being able to describe and manipulate abstract processes which may be used as a unique means of artistic expression. This gives a greater amount of freedom to the programmer/artist than is the case when he or she is limited by programmed procedures defined by others.Prior to the development of a formal means of specifying visual and aural events, a concrete machine or set of rules for their manipulation and a means of bringing these representations back into the world as physical events, abstract processes were things to be contemplated but not experienced. Musical and spatial notations employed by artists, engineers and others, in concert with the programming of computing hardware, have opened the way for those who wish to manipulate processes in their artistic practice.In order to focus study and practice in the area of such generative computer art, the Center for Electronic Media Art (CEMA) has been established in Melbourne, Australia. The Center has spawned an international conference series on generative/process-based electronic art called Iteration. The perceived roles of the Center and Iteration conferences are discussed in this paper.

Ten Questions Concerning Generative Computer Art

ABSTRACT In this paper the authors pose 10 questions they consider the most important for understanding generative computer art. For each question, the authors briefly discuss its implications and suggest how it might form the basis for further discussion.

Flower Colours through the Lens: Quantitative Measurement with Visible and Ultraviolet Digital Photography

Background The study of the signal-receiver relationship between flowering plants and pollinators requires a capacity to accurately map both the spectral and spatial components of a signal in relation to the perceptual abilities of potential pollinators. Spectrophotometers can typically recover high resolution spectral data, but the spatial component is difficult to record simultaneously. A technique allowing for an accurate measurement of the spatial component in addition to the spectral factor of the signal is highly desirable. Methodology/Principal findings Consumer-level digital cameras potentially provide access to both colour and spatial information, but they are constrained by their non-linear response. We present a robust methodology for recovering linear values from two different camera models: one sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and another to visible wavelengths. We test responses by imaging eight different plant species varying in shape, size and in the amount of energy reflected across the UV and visible regions of the spectrum, and compare the recovery of spectral data to spectrophotometer measurements. There is often a good agreement of spectral data, although when the pattern on a flower surface is complex a spectrophotometer may underestimate the variability of the signal as would be viewed by an animal visual system. Conclusion Digital imaging presents a significant new opportunity to reliably map flower colours to understand the complexity of these signals as perceived by potential pollinators. Compared to spectrophotometer measurements, digital images can better represent the spatio-chromatic signal variability that would likely be perceived by the visual system of an animal, and should expand the possibilities for data collection in complex, natural conditions. However, and in spite of its advantages, the accuracy of the spectral information recovered from camera responses is subject to variations in the uncertainty levels, with larger uncertainties associated with low radiance levels.

A Survey of Virtual Ecosystems in Generative Electronic Art

This paper explores the application of ecosystem simulation to the production of works of generative electronic art. The aim is to demonstrate that virtual ecosystems are capable of producing outcomes that are rich, complex and interesting aesthetically. A number of artworks that employ virtual ecosystems are surveyed. The author argues that the most interesting works of generative art exhibit four basic properties: coherence and unity; multi-scaled temporal complexity; autonomous production of novelty; responsiveness to perturbation. The virtual ecosystem is assessed for its suitability as a medium for constructing generative art in light of these desirable properties. It is concluded that the ecosystem’s strengths lie in its exhibition of multi-scaled complexity and its autonomous production of novelty. Whilst an artist may manipulate a simulation to retain visual and sonic coherence, the software also possesses an implicit coherence inherent in its ability to self-organize. Under some circumstances it appears that the weakness of the virtual ecosystem as an artistic medium lies in its unpredictable response to perturbation. Consequently, the paper also explores virtual ecosystems’ susceptibility to external control and describes methods that have been employed to adjust the responsiveness of art works that employ them.

Building virtual ecosystems from artificial chemistry

This paper adopts an interdisciplinary view of the significant elements of ecosystems and the methods by which these might be simulated to explore theoretical issues of relevance to Artificial Life and Ecology. Artificial Life has largely been concerned with evolutionary ecosystems of agents in trivial environments. Ecology commonly produces models of specific habitats and organism populations unsuited to general exploration of theoretical issues. We propose that limitations of the simulations in these disciplines can be overcome by simulating ecosystems from the level of artificial chemistry. We demonstrate the approachs feasibility by describing several virtual organisms represented at this level. The organisms automatically adopt trophic levels, generate energy from chemical bonds and transform material elements in the process. Virtual organisms may interact with one another and their abiotic environment using the same chemistry. Biosynthesis and decay may also be simulated through this mechanism.

Artificial life, death and epidemics in evolutionary, generative electronic art

This paper explores strategies for slowing the onset of convergence in an evolving population of agents. The strategies include the emergent maintenance of separate agent sub-populations and migration between them, and the introduction of virtual diseases that co-evolve parasitically within their hosts. The method looks to Artificial Life and epidemiology for its inspiration but its ultimate concerns are in studying epidemics as a process suitable for application to generative electronic art. The simulation is used to construct a prototype artwork for a fully interactive stereoscopic virtual-reality environment to be exhibited in a science museum.