Nell Tenhaaf

The aesthetics of emergence: Co-constructed interactions

In this article, we describe the aesthetics of emergence, which is our theoretical framework for an aesthetics of interaction and the underpinning of LoFi, an interactive A-life artwork that we are developing. We provide a survey of relevant concepts from the A-life and new media research communities, and we establish threads of commonalities with the HCI research community and especially the subset of that community that emphasizes aspects of user experience other than those that are characterized by performance-based measures. We describe and discuss several exemplar A-life artworks that are drawn from the last decade of jury selections of the annual Vida Art and Artificial Life Competition, conducted by Fundación Telefonica. We conclude with a discussion of issues that are common to the A-life and HCI research communities.

Art Embodies A-Life: The VIDA Competition

ABSTRACT Artificial Life artworks hold a unique place in the art world, one that has been largely mapped by the VIDA international competition through its annual recognition of outstanding works based on A-Life. Works that have received awards since the VIDA competition began in 1999 (25 prize-winning artworks and 56 honorary mentions) have gained viewer appreciation and popularity at the same level as any other kind of art. Yet these works define a territory of their own, delineated here through characteristics of A-Life art that arise from both the artists studio and the research lab and that mark the 25 awarded artworks. Following this article, the Leonardo VIDA Gallery presents a selection of eight prize-winning works that show the breadth of the competition to date; each is discussed here.

As Art Is Lifelike: Evolution, Art, and the Readymade

The early development and current concerns of artificial life practices are outlined in relation to both biology and art. The pragmatic side of a-life is presented, together with a consideration of how it compares with the biological sciences and a description of its methodologies for studying nature through computer simulation. A-life is proposed here as a place to locate art practice for artists who are interested in technoscience, and who are concerned with the “two cultures” gap between the humanities and the sciences. Mythical narratives that underpin new computational techniques, such as the dream of transformation or even generation of life, are not dismissed but become the impetus for resituating a-life as a set of representational strategies with great creative potential. A-life is linked to a particular aspect of 20th century art: how artists have developed and expressed the conviction that art and everyday life are inextricably enmeshed.

Perceptions of Self in Art and Intelligent Agents

The article discusses the term “embodiment” according to the different meanings it has in contemporary cultural discourse on the one hand, and in Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Life modeling on the other. The discussion serves as a backdrop for analysis of an interactive artwork by Vancouver artist Liz Van der Zaag, “Talk Nice”, which behaves like an Intelligent A gent that interacts socially with humans. “Talk Nice” has features corresponding to both conceptions of embodiment, and it elicits further ideas about the significance of those notions for definitions of selfhood.