Computer Arts Society
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Programme 2006
New & Recent
- 24 January 2012: Eduardo Kac on Waldemar Cordeiro
- 29 November 2011: Monomatic
- 7 September 2011: Dr. Jack Tait: The Origin of Ideas & Analogue Programmer T4 with digital overtones
News
PAGE 67 is now available. Click on PAGE in the left-hand menu.
A significant recent book White Heat Cold Logic records the pioneering British computer art of the period 1960 to 1980.
Co-editors of the book are Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nick Lambert and Catherine Mason, all members of CAS.
More about the book See the book on the publisher’s site at MIT Press
The CACHe digital archiveof pioneering British computer art is now hosted at the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts.
The Computer Arts Society now has a Facebook page.
Programme 2006
- December 12th
Dr. Nicholas Lambert, John Lansdown and the Genesis of Computer Art - November 14th
Harold Cohen
AARON, Colorist: From Expert System to Expert - September 28th
Stepping Stones in the Mist - July 10th
Lin Hsin Hsin, The power of 00000000s and 11111111s - June 29th
Patrick Tresset, AIKON: Artistic~Automated IKONograph - May 16th
Creative Cyborgs - March 7th
Bits in Motion: Early British Computer-Generated Art Film - January 23th
Interaction - the art and the science
John Lansdown and the Genesis of Computer Art
Tuesday 12 December 2006
Dr. Nicholas Lambert, Birkbeck College
John Lansdown was a founder member of the CAS and the pioneer after whom the Lansdown Centre is named.
To date, the history of computer graphics has tended to be dominated by the record of American contributors, but in the CACHe project, Nick and his colleagues have revealed the history of the UK contribution in which John Lansdown was a key figure. Nick will look at several early articles John Lansdown wrote in the 1960s-70s and consider how clearly he foresaw the potentials and development of modern computer art.
A joint meeting between the Lansdown Centre at Middlesex University and the Computer Arts Society.
Tuesday 12 December 2006
4:45pm for one hour +
Middlesex University
Cat Hill Campus: Room 137
The campus is a simple Tube ride from central London, and within easy reach of the M25. Location in Google Maps: tinyurl.com/yhpcgy
Admission is free.
If you would like to attend this lecture, please email LCEAinfo@mdx.ac.uk. Any enquires to Stephen Boyd Davis s.boyd-davis@mdx.ac.uk.
Harold Cohen
AARON, Colorist: From Expert System to Expert
Tuesday 14th November 2006
A meeting of The Computer Arts Society in association with the Dept. of Computing, Imperial College.
Tuesday 14th November 2006
6:30pm for 7:00pm
Imperial College
Lecture Theatre 308
Department of Computing
Huxley Building,
180 Queens Gate
South Kensington
London SW7 2RH
Abstract
For the past twenty years the AARON Program has been a rule-based "expert system," steadily accumulating higher levels of expertise in coloring its images. Its rule-base has also become increasingly detailed and complex, to the point where making changes, or adding new rules, often resulted in broken code buried elsewhere, deep in the Program.
A few months ago its author, Harold Cohen, abandoned this long-developed, highly successful system in favor of a remarkably simple algorithm, which not only performed as well as its predecessor, but also extended the range of AARON's coloring strategies. This algorithmic approach is now in its third version, and the Program exhibits a high level of control over the "kind" of coloring it does.
In this talk, Cohen describes the color technology underlying the new approach and how twenty years of accumulated expertise were collapsed into a few lines of simple code and how and why it works as well as it does.
Stepping Stones in the Mist
28 September 2006
The next CAS meeting will be held in collaboration with the
Thursday Club at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Directions
Stepping Stones in the Mist
Thursday Club with Professor Paul Brown
28 September, 6-8pm, Ben Pimlott Building
Free - all are welcome
Paul Brown
Visiting Professor
Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics
University of Sussex
This presentation is an idiosyncratic and non-rigorous account of my work as an artist who has been involved in the field now known as Artificial Life for over 30 years. To give the audience some context I begin with a few opinions that define my position within the visual arts (which is far from the current mainstream) and then go on to describe early influences from the 1960s and 70s that have framed my involvement in the field of computational arts. This includes some examples of my work from this period. The latter part of the essay describes my working methodology and includes examples of my more recent work and ends with some speculations about where I may go in the future.
About the Speaker
Paul Brown is an artist and writer who has been specialising in art and technology for over 30 years. In 1984 he was the founding head of the UK's National Centre for Computer Aided Art and Design and in 1994 he returned to Australia after a two-year appointment as Professor of Art and Technology at Mississippi State University to head Griffith University’s Multimedia Unit. In 1996 was the founding Adjunct Professor of Communication Design at Queensland University of Technology.
From 1997-99 he was Chair of the Management Board of the Australian Network for Art Technology and is currently chair of the Computer Arts Society. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards for LEA, the e-journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (MIT Press), and the journal Digital Creativity (Routledge). From 1992 to 1999 he edited fine Art forum, one of the Internet's longest established art 'zines and he is currently moderator of the DASH (Digital ArtS Histories) and CMCA (Computational Models of Creativity in the Arts) e-lists.
His computer generated artwork has been exhibited internationally since 1967 and is currently on show in Europe, Russia, the USA and Australia.
During 2000/2001 he was a New Media Arts Fellow of the Australia Council and he spent 2000 as artist-in-residence at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) at the University of Sussex in Brighton. From 2002-05 he was visiting fellow at the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he worked on the CACHe (Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc...) research project. He is currently (2005-08) a visiting professor and artist-in-residence at the School of Informatics, University of Sussex where he is working on a CCNR project to evolve robots that can exhibit creative behaviour.
Examples of his artwork and publications are available on his web site at: Paul's site
The power of 00000000s and 11111111s
Monday 10 July 2006
Computer Arts Society
Public Meeting
6:30 for 7:00
Speaker: Lin Hsin Hsin
System Simulation Ltd, Bedford Chambers
The Piazza, Covent Garden London WC2E 8HA
Tel: 020 7836 7406
Synopsis
The combination of digital technology and the easy accessibility of drag and drop, cut and paste, morph and tween, music samplers and computers, networks and downloads have irrevocably changed the way art, sound, music and animation are produced and perceived. As digital art, music and animation spawn to become a profound means of expression in their own right, a new breed of technology must be forged to set new directions of creating and generating different genres of art, music and animation. However, the interest and assimilation of new and untried technologies is not based on a sure wager on notions of the "borrowed", nor it is based on converting the "analog world" to the digital, or even the digitally recorded sources. As such, the speaker attempts to reload the fundamental of zeros and ones, formulating and formatting the simplicity (or complexity) of the basics to generate art, sound, music and animation.
Duration: 1 hour, Q&A c15 mins
Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum: www.lhham.com.sg/
Biography
Lin Hsin Hsin is an artist, poet and composer from Singapore, deeply rooted in information technology. She was born in Singapore. She graduated in mathematics from the University of Singapore and received a postgraduate degree in computer science from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She studied music and art in Singapore, printmaking at the University of Ulster, papermaking in Ogawamachi, Japan and paper conservation at the University of Melbourne Conservation Services.
Hsin Hsin has held solo exhibitions in Singapore, Amsterdam and San Jose, California, USA. She has participated in exhibitions across Asia, Europe, North America and South America. In 1985, she was awarded a silver medal by the SociÈtÈ des Artistes FranÁais, Paris. In 1987, she received the IBM Singapore Art Award. Her artworks are in private, public and museum collections in Asia, Europe and North America.
Lin Hsin Hsin is a digital media pioneer. She has created the 1st digital music in 1985, 1st 3D digital art in 1987, 1st digital animation in 1989 in Singapore. In 1994, she set up one of the earliest virtual museums in the world, the Lin Hsin Hsin Art Museum. Lin Hsin Hsin created Web art and Net art in 1995, and she has developed interactive Web art since 1997. She pioneered virtual sculpting in 1999 in Singapore; it was exhibited in Paris, France.
AIKON: Artistic~Automated IKONograph
Thursday 29 June 2006
Computer Arts Society
Public Meeting
Thursday 29 June 2006
Speaker: Patrick Tresset
System Simulation Ltd, Bedford Chambers
The Piazza, Covent Garden London WC2E 8HA
Tel: 020 7836 7406
AIKON: Artistic~Automated IKONograph.
AIKON mimics the drawing process developed by the artist, Patrick Tresset. AIKON is able to sketch faces automatically, starting from a picture, typically a photographic snapshot of a scene with humans. AIKON's implementation relies on an understanding of human visual perception, of the artist's work process, and of advances made in computer vision.
Tresset is currently finishing an MSc in Arts Computing at Goldsmiths College. He will then pursue his research at Goldsmiths' Digital Studios preparing for a PhD. Patrick studied computer sciences twenty years ago in France. He then came to London to become a painter. During the past 15 years he has participated in solo and group exhibitions in London and Paris. During the past 3 years his interest in computing was revived. Joining forces with Frederic Fol Leymarie in 2004, he has been developing the AIKON project. Patrick main interest is to create autonomous systems capable of interpreting visual reality and producing artistic results.
Creative Cyborgs
Tuesday 16 May 2006
The next CAS meeting will be held at the
Science Museums DANA Centre
Tuesday 16 May 7:00-10:00pm
An evening of performances and events curated by BLIP in collaboration with the Computer Arts Society and the Computational Models of Creativity in the Arts workshop being held at Goldsmith College.
All welcome BUT booking is necessary.
See DanaCentre booking for a complete program and booking details.
A Map is here.
The restaurant will be open and food and drinks will be available.
Bits in Motion: Early British Computer-Generated Art Film
Tuesday 7 March 2006
Supported by the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise, Birkbeck University of London and held in conjunction with the Computer Arts Society. This event is taking place under the larger banner of Node.London ’06 Season of Media Arts.
Tuesday 7 March 2006 at 6.10pm at the National Film Theatre in NFT3.
This showing features rare and little-known works from the beginnings of British computer animation as well as onstage discussions with pioneers from the early days of this field and will include discussions with leading practitioners of the time.
The event marks the culmination of CACHe, an extensive research project at Birkbeck into the untold stories behind the early days of British computer arts. The screening and discussion will take audiences on a journey through previously lost or obscure material, from the first computer animation made in Britain, to the appearance of computer graphics in commercial TV and film.
Artists and practitioners who were active at the time, including Stan Hayward (creator of Henry‘s Cat) and Malcolm Le Grice, Dr Charlie Gere and Dr George Mallen will introduce the work and take part in panel discussions with pioneers.
Tickets £8.20, concs £6.25, NFT members £7.20, members‘ concs £5.25
Box Office 020 7928 3232 BFI NFT site
Early British Computer-Generated Art Film is presented in partnership with School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, Birkbeck, supported by AHRC and LCACE. Bits In Motion takes place as part of NODE.L, a series of events related to technology and art taking place throughout March in venues across London. For more information, see nodel.org
Interaction - the art and the science
Monday 23 January 2006
The Computer Arts Society
Public Meeting
Open discussion led by George Mallen
Monday 23 January 2006 - 6:30 for 7:00pm
System Simulation Ltd.
Bedford Chambers, The Piazza,
Covent Garden, LONDON WC2E 8HA
We begin our 2006 program (& best wishes for this New Year to everyone!) with an open discussion led by George Mallen of System Simulation. George is an original co-founder of the Computer Arts Society and his involvement in human computer interaction dates back to his work with Gordon Pask at Systems Research in the 1960's. He was closely involved in the development of the Eco Dome - one of the first large scale immersive interactive artworks - that was first exhibited at the CAS Show Interact in 1973.