Computer Arts Society
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Programme 2009
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 2009
- December 2nd
Iris Asaf, Uncertainty and The Algorithmic Conceptualization of The Design Process: The Quest for Novelty and Creativity in Architectural Design - November 4th
George Mallen: Playing, making and knowing - art in a high tech culture - October 14th
Roman Verostko, Writing the Score for Drawing - September 2nd
Barbara Nessim - July 6th—8th
Electronic visualisation and the Arts, EVA London 2009 - May 6th
Jörn Ebner - April 1st
Rob Saunders, Computational Models of Curiosity - March 4th
Francesca Franco, 1970 - the first computer art show at the Venice Biennale: an experiment or product of the bourgeois culture? - February 28—March 2
CAS has a stand at the Kinetica Art Fair - February 4th
Peter Zinovieff, Music and Geology or Geology, Electronic Music and Opera? - January 19th
Lansdown Symposium: 'Completing the Circle: Incorporating Evaluation in Creative Work'
Wednesday 2 December 2009 7:00 for 7:30pm
Iris Asaf
This talk is free and members of the public are welcome to attend.
!Please note the later start!
AGM: 6:30 prompt
Talk: 7:00 for 7:30pm
Birkbeck College
Centre for Film and Visual Media
43 Gordon Squar
London WC1H 0PD
Nearest tubes - Euston Square, Warren Street & Russell Square
Uncertainty and The Algorithmic Conceptualization of The Design Process: The Quest for Novelty and Creativity in Architectural Design
Iris Asaf
The creative process has always constituted an essential mechanism: that of an uncertain exploration, the development of premeditation to envision something that has not yet been made, or that may surprisingly appear. Interestingly, this relation between creativity and unpredictability has been especially prevalent with the enhanced use of generative systems in architectural design.
The presentation will discuss the way in which various approaches to generative systems in design set the stage where the architectural design process can be viewed as an uncertain quest of potentialities. In this quest, design is a way of algorithmically thinking and conceptualizing ideas, and the potential for creativity lies within the dialogue between what has been algorithmically defined and what has surprisingly emerged.
Iris Asaf is an architect and a PhD candidate at the Bartlett Graduate School, University College London. Her doctoral work focuses on developing a critical theoretical perspective on the use of computerized form-generation tools (or generative systems) in relation to creativity in design. She is also interested in the cultural and conceptual transformations of the design process as a result of the developments of information technologies and evolutionary tools.
She has practiced as an architect and taught theory courses in Architecture, and she holds a B.Arch (Cum Laude) and an MSc (First Class Honours) in Architecture from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She is currently teaching on the Bartlett Graduate School's MSc in Adaptive Architecture and Computation. Iris has also been the recipient of numerous international grants and awards in design and research, such as The Gertrude Award for research excellence and UCL's ORS and GSRS Research Awards.
Wednesday 4 November 2009 7:00 for 7:30pm
The BCS Computer Arts Society SG is pleased to announce that our next presentation is by computer arts pioneer and CAS co-founder George Mallen. George's talk will be preceded by our AGM (members only) at 6:30 prompt.
This talk is free and members of the public are welcome to attend.
!Please note the later start!
AGM: 6:30 prompt
Talk: 7:00 for 7:30pm
Birkbeck College
Centre for Film and Visual Media
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
Nearest tubes - Euston Square, Warren Street & Russell Square
George Mallen
Playing, making and knowing - art in a high tech culture
At a time of increasing worry about impending crises of many different sorts - climate, food, water, energy, sociality and politics etc etc - is art in danger of being chucked into the corner as mere wealth absorption for those who have and irrelevant for those who haven't? Often it seems that the critical achievements of our culture are quietly made by scientists and engineers while artists apparently achieve great public acclaim for rather questionable work. Why is that? My talk will try to place art, and particularly computer art, in our growing understanding about the relationship between making, knowing and the computer as both knowledge repository and engine of new symbolism.
George has worked with computers since 1962 having had a graduate appointment in the Mathematics Dept at the Royal Aircraft Establishment where many of the early pioneers of computing from Manchester and Bletchley Park had gathered. From there he went on to work with Gordon Pask on various cybernetic ideas. He co-founded System Simulation Ltd in 1970 and that has been his focus since. Diversions along the way have included academic involvements such as helping create the Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art and introducing computing activities to the RCA. Another academic innovation was the creation of the Department of Communication and Media at Bournemouth University. But, these diversions included, over the years, SSL has supported computer art and the role of computers in cultural activities in many ways since its inception.
Wednesday 14 October 2009 6:30 for 7:00pm
Roman Verostko
Birkbeck College
Centre for Film and Visual Media
43 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
Nearest tubes - Euston Square, Warren Street & Russell Square
The BCS CAS SG is pleased to announce that our Autumn Programme continues with a presentation by Roman Verostko who was awarded the SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award at last month's SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans. Roman is visiting London and we are very lucky to have this oportunity to hear him speak. Please note that because of Roman's schedule this talk is on the SECOND Wednesday and not our usual first Wednesday.
This talk is free and members of the public are welcome to attend.
Writing the Score for Drawing.
Roman outlines sources that dominated his pursuit as an artist for over 60 years. He identifies “form generating” ideas from pioneers of non-objective art that shaped his pre-algorist work and have continued to shape his approach to algorithmic art. His presentation illustrates the transition from what he calls “art-mind guiding hand” to “art-mind guiding machine”. By doing so he suggests that the “decision bit” and one’s art ideas are inseparable. For this session he will include a brief addendum on his 2008 project, the Upsidedown Book and Mural for which he resurrected pre-algorist drawings and transformed them with digital tools.
Roman Verostko, born 1929, Art Institute of Pittsburgh (1949), Professor Emeritus, MCAD (1994). Primarily a painter in his pre-algorist work, Roman also experimented with new media with showings of his programmed audio-visuals in 1967 long before exhibiting his first fully algorist work, “The Magic Hand of Chance”, in 1982. A founding member of the algorists he is known best for his richly colored algorithmic pen and brush drawings. His generative software controls up to 14 pens and achieves expressive brush strokes driving oriental brushes with a pen plotter. His seminal paper, “Epigenetic Painting: Software as Genotype” (ISEA, Utrecht, 1988), outlined the biological analogues to generative art (verostko.com/epigenet.html)
Wednesday 2 September 2009 6:30 for 7:00pm
Birbeck College
Centre for Film and Visual Media
43 Gordon Square,
London WC1H 0PD
Nearest tubes - Euston Square, Warren Street & Russell Square
Map: www.bbk.ac.uk/maps/interactive
Barbara Nessim
"My introduction to the computer began when Peter Spackman, the then Director of the Council of the Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, invited me to present my work to the students at The Visible Language Workshop, a new MIT graduate program. In turn, the students would teach me how to use the computer to create my work. I was both excited by the challenge and skeptical as to how a computer could be used to create art. This was 1980, before the Mac and the IBM PC. I already had 20 years experience as a fine artist and illustrator. This talk takes us through the years before and after the introduction of the computer, as an added artistic "super" tool. It covers the early computers from 1981 to the present, as well as detailing the many creative ways the art developed into hardcopy. I will also discuss the ideas central to my fine art exhibitions as well as reveal the anatomy and concept behind my published illustrations."
Internationally-renowned artist, illustrator and educator Barbara Nessim has been a visionary in the art world for decades. Original in her creativity, she has an extensive resume of accomplishments, and a portfolio of work that’s been showcased in prominent museums, galleries and private collections worldwide. Educated at Pratt Institute in New York, Barbara was quickly recognized for her distinctive style, and became one of the first female freelance illustrators of her time. In 1980, she embraced the use of the computer in her fine art and illustration, a topic upon which she has frequently lectured. Barbara has also taught at the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute and Parsons The New School for Design, where she served as Chairperson of Illustration. Today Barbara’s focus is on several commissions for buildings in New York City.
Monday 6th—Wednesday 8th July 2009
Electronic visualisation and the Arts
EVA London 2009
Sponsored by the BCS Computer Arts Society Specialist Group
REGISTRATION OPEN
Catch the Early Bird rates before the end of May!
Current BCS members receive a 20% discount on all attendance fees
When?
6th-8th July 2009
Where?
British Computer Society
The Davidson Building
5 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HA
EVA London 2009 will debate the issues, discuss trends and demonstrate the digital possibilities in:
- Reconstructive archaeology
- Digital history
- Virtual museology
- Digital arts concepts and practice
- Immersive environments
- Digital performance
- Computer music
If you are interested in the new technologies in the cultural sector - if you are an artist, policy maker, manager, researcher, practitioner, audience evaluator or educator - this conference is for you.
For further information including programme, social events and registration details, please visit www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/
A limited number of bursary places are available. If you would like to apply please see www.eva-conferences.com/eva_london/2009/bursaries.
Wednesday 6 May 2009 6:30 for 7:00pm
London Knowledge Lab
Institute of Education
23 - 29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS, England
Tube: Holborn, Russell Square or Chancery Lane
Jörn Ebner
"In this artist’s talk I will present notions of the use of objects, landscapes / cityscapes and song / sound in the context of my online works. Beginning with earlier performative pieces, I will speak about sculptural notions - the use of space and objects - in my early online works 2000-2004. My move to understand the internet as a physical element of landscape since 2005, and recent browser-based structures about central-peripheral cityscapes."
Jörn Ebner, born 1966, visual artist. Studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London [1995-98], and English Literature at Universität Hamburg [1990-95]; he currently lives in Berlin, Germany. His works are predominantly located online, yet refer back to the viewers’ situation in the physical world or operate in the public realm. In 2008 and 2006 Ars Electronica Festival commissioned two visual accompaniments for performances by the Bruckner Orchestra. In 2001 his work “Lee Marvin Toolbox” was awarded the Kunstpreis des Medienforums München. His works are shown in international galleries and festivals (Siggraph; FILE; Stuttgarter Filmwinter; Viper; selection FILE Rio).
Wednesday 1 April 2009 6:30 for 7:00pm
London Knowledge Lab - Institute of Education
23 - 29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS, England
Tube: Holborn, Russell Square or Chancery Lane
Rob Saunders: Computational Models of Curiosity
"In this talk I will present my research developing computational models of curiosity and their application to the modelling of individual and social creativity. Curiosity is a behavioural response to a perceived lack of information. Computational models of curiosity can be constructed using a wide range of machine learning technologies. The development of agent-based models of curiosity opens up new possibilities for modelling creative behaviour, including the autonomous exploration of conceptual spaces. The autonomy of motivated creative agents supports the modelling of emergent dynamics of social creativity. Motivated creative agents also present new opportunities for supporting human creativity."
Rob Saunders is Lecturer in Design Computing at The Design Lab in The University of Sydney, Australia. His research has focussed on the development of computational models of creativity. In particular, he has developed computational models to explore the role of curiosity, interest and boredom in the creative process.
He has used his models of curiosity to develop computational models of social creativity to explore the emergent dynamics of social creativity. His most recent research includes extending models of social creativity to include aspects of language and culture to explore the consequences of these phenomena on the evolution of creativity.
The Computer Arts Society is pleased to invite you to our March meeting. This event is open to the public and is free. You are invited to attend a little earlier - at 6:30 - for a glass of wine to celebrate the informal launch of the new book "White Heat Cold Logic - British Computer Art 1960-1980" from MIT Press. Three of the books four editors and several contributors will be present.
Wednesday 4 March 2009
Francesca Franco
1970 - the first computer art show at the Venice Biennale: an experiment or product of the bourgeois culture?
6:30 for 7:00pm
London Knowledge Lab
23—29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS, UK
Tube: Holborn, Russell Square or Chancery Lane
"My talk focuses on the history of the first computer art show held at the Venice Biennale in 1970 and its political and social context. What consequences did this show bring about to the Biennale?
"I propose to consider the 1970 Venice Biennale as a reflection of the global changes in the art world that happened in the late 1960s in response to technological developments. Two earlier events, namely the Tendencies 4 exhibition in Zagreb and the First Nuremberg Biennale, both held in 1969, foreshadow these changes. I will consider works presented by artists such as Herbert Franke, Frieder Nake, Georg Nees and the Computer Technique Group (CGT, Japan), to discuss to what extent the Biennale reflected different approaches to computer art in western and eastern countries. I will also analyse the way technology brought to the Biennale a new wave of creativity, but at the same time an element of destabilisation to the traditional asset of the Biennale institution."
Francesca Franco is an associate lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, within the School of History of Art, Film & Visual Media (2007-present). She is currently completing her PhD in history of art on the relationship between art, technology and politics in the context of the Venice Biennale, 1966-1986, at Birkbeck College. She holds an MA in Digital Art History obtained from the same college. She has been sitting on the editorial board of Computers and the History of Art (CHArt) since 2005.
Saturday 28 February Monday 2 March
CAS has a stand at the Kinetica Art Fair
Saturday 28 February: 10:00 - 22:00hrs
Sunday 1 March: 11:00 - 22:00hrs
Monday 2 March: 09:00 - 16:00hrs
P3
35 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5LS
Very near Baker Street tube station, roughly opposite Madame Tussauds.
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Peter Zinovieff
Music and Geology or Geology, Electronic Music and Opera?
6:30 for 7:00pm
London Knowledge Lab - Institute of Education
23 - 29 Emerald St
London WC1N 3QS, England
Tube: Holborn, Russell Square or Chancery Lane
The talk is about three enterprises of excellence that I have been intimately involved in. I describe my making the first geological map of the Cuillins mountains in Skye (1958), the problems of my early computers (1960’s) in electronic music contrasted to some present day experiments (2008), and the preparation of my libretto for ‘The Mask of Orpheus’ (1984) by Birtwistle.
I show that these wildly different endeavours are not so dissimilar when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of their actual creation.
The lecture of 40 minutes is accompanied by archive videos, sounds and slides, as well as a display of rocks, pictures and electronic objects.
Peter Zinovieff is a pioneer of electronic and computer music. He is a British inventor of Russian ethnicity, most notable for his EMS company, which made the famous VCS3 synthesiser in the late '60s. The synthesiser was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd and White Noise, Krautrock groups like Kraftwerk as well as more pop oriented artists, a good example being David Bowie.
Zinovieff also wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus.
19th January 2009
Lansdown Symposium: 'Completing the Circle: Incorporating Evaluation in Creative Work'
This is a one-day public symposium endorsed by the Computer Arts Society and the Design Research Society.
There is reduced admission for members of CAS.
British Computer Society
Davidson Building
5 Southampton Street
London
WC2E 7HA