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Content: Introduction to Metacreation, Syllabus, Organisation, Motivations, Elements on theories of creativity.

Video: Creativity and Computers, Margaret Boden, University of Sussex

Readings:

• Margaret Boden. Computational Models of Creativity, Handbook of Creativity, Chapter 18, PaperBack, 1998.
• Bruce G. Buchanan. Creativity at the Metalevel: AAAI-2000 Presidential Address, AI Magazine, Vol 22, No 3, 2001.
  (available online: http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/1569)

Slides: Introduction (PDF, 978 kB), Elements on Creativity (PDF, 288 kB)

Slides handouts are formatted in black and white (you loose all the highlights but it is better for your printer!), two slides per page. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDF files.

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Content: Autonomous Agents (Part1), A bi-dimensional analysis of media art

Readings:

• M. Wooldridge and N. R. Jennings. Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice. In Knowledge Engineering Review 10(2), 1995. (Available from the authors' web page). Section 4 can be skipped (deprecated).
• Stephen Wilson, Artificial intelligence research as art, SEHR, volume 4, issue 2: Constructions of the Mind, Updated July 22, 1995 (available as part of Stanford Humanities Review)
• OPTIONAL Russel and Norvig (“the bible”), Artificial intelligence: A modern approach (second ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Chapters 1&2. (# Q 335 R86 2003  at Surrey Library)
• OPTIONAL Jorge Muller, Architectures and applications of intelligent agents: A survey, Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol 13:4, 1998, pp. 353-380. (Available online through SFU library)

Deliverables:

• Proposal for the theoretical research (1 page maximum)
• Information about your background and motivations (2 pages maximum)

Slides: Autonomous Agents (Part1, PDF, 219 kB)

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Content: Multi-agent systems (part 2): Case Studies I & II, Elements of theories of communication, Agent Communication.

Readings:

• Guillaume Hutzler, Bernard Gortais, Alexis Drogoul, The Garden of Chance: A Visual Ecosystem, Leonardo, Vol. 33, No. 2, Pages 101-106, April 2000. (Available online through SFU library)
• Yannis Labrou, Tim Finin and Yun Peng. Agent Communication Languages: The Current Landscape, Intelligent Systems, Vol. 14, No. 2, IEEE Computer Society, March/April 1999. (Available online trough SFU library and on the author's web page)
• OPTIONAL David Murray-Rust, Alan Smaill, Michael Edwards: MAMA: An Architecture for Interactive Musical Agents. Proceedings of the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), pages 36-40, 2006 (Available online)
• OPTIONAL David Murray-Rust, Alan Smaill, Musical Acts and Musical Agents, Proceedings of the 5th MUSICNETWORK Open Workshop, 2005. (Available online on the Workshop's Web page)

Deliverables:

• (Re) Proposal for the theoretical research (1 page maximum)

Slides: Elements of Theories of Communication (PDF, 1 730 kB) , Agent Communication (PDF, 1 366 kB)

 

Content: Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent systems (Part 3)

Readings:

• Brooks, R. A., Intelligence Without Representation, Artificial Intelligence Journal (47), pp. 139–159, 1991. (Available online through SFU library)
• Chong, H-Q., Tan, A-H., Ng, G-W., Integrated cognitive architectures: a survey, Artificial Intelligence Review, Vol 28:2, 2007, Springer Netherlands, pp. 103-130. (Available online through SFU library)
• OPTIONAL Brooks, R. A., A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot, IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 14–23, March 1986. (Available online through SFU library)
• OPTIONAL, Brooks, R. A., Elephants Don't Play Chess, Robotics and Autonomous Systems (6), pp. 3–15, 1990. (Available from the authors Web Page).
• OPTIONAL, Steels, L. Fifty Years of AI: From Symbols to Embodiment - and Back. In 50 Years of Artificial Intelligence, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 4850, pp. 18-28, 2006. (Available from the authors Web Page).
• Hutzler, G., Gortais, B. From Computer Art to Ambient Displays. Machine Graphics & Vision (MGV), Volume 13, Number 1/2, pages 181-191, 2004 (Available online).

Deliverables:

• Reflexions on the final project (1 page minimum), including the link with your own research.

Slides: Autonomous Agents (Part 2, PDF, 1 535kB)

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Content: Machine Learning (Part 1): Neural Networks, Unsupervised Learning

Readings:

• Lippmann, R. An introduction to computing with neural nets. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Volume: 4,  Issue: 2 , Part 1, page(s): 4- 22, 1987 (Available via IEEE Xplore system, accessible via SFU library electronic collection)
• Dolson, M., Machine Tongues XII: Neural Networks, Computer Music Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3., pp. 28-40, 1989. (Available through JSTOR, accessible via SFU library electronic collection)
• Todd, P.M. Neural networks for applications in the arts. In M. Scott (Ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Symposium on Small Computers in the Arts (pp. 3-8). Philadelphia, PA: Small Computers in the Arts Network, Inc. 1991. (Available on the author's Web page).
• OPTIONAL, Lewis, J.P. Shape and Texture Generation by Neural Network Creation Paradigm, Proceedings of Graphics Interface '91, pages 129-134, 1991. (Available online)

Slides: Machine Learning: Introduction (PDF, 178kB), Neural Networks (PDF, 599kB)

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Content: Machine Learning (Part 2). Instance-based Learning.
Thinking Metacreation: Technophilia vs. Technophobia.

Readings:

• Tom Mitchell, Instance Based Learning, Chapter 8, in Machine Learning, McGraw Hill, 1997.
• E. Pampalk, S. Dixon and G. Widmer, Exploring Music Collections by Browsing Different Views, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR'03), Washington, D.C., USA, 2003. (available online, for example, through citeseer)
• (OPTIONAL) Dominik Hörnel and Wolfram Menzel, Learning Musical Structure and Style with Neural Networks, Computer Music Journal, Vol. 22, No. 4. (Winter, 1998), pp. 44-62.
• (OPTIONAL) B. Thom, BoB: an Interactive Improvisational Companion, Fourth International Conference on Autonomous Agents (Agents-2000), Barcelona, Spain, 2000.

Deliverables: Working prototype.

Slides: Instance-based Learning (PDF, 326kB)

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Content: Machine learning (Part3): Reinfocement Learning, Introduction to Artificial Life

Video: Jurgen Schmidhuber - The algorithmic principle behind Creativity

Readings:

• Mance E. Harmon, Stephanie S. Harmon, Reinforcement Learning: A Tutorial, 1996. (available online, for example, through citeseer)
• (OPTIONAL) Leslie Pack Kaelbling, Michael L. Littman and Andrew P. Moore, Reinforcement Learning: A Survey, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, volume 4, pages 237-285, 1996 (available online through SFU library)
• Pachet, Francois, The Continuator: Musical Interaction with Style. In Proceedings of International Conference on Computer Music, ICMC, pages 211-218, September 2002. ICMA. best paper award (available from the author's page)
• (OPTIONAL) Pachet, Francois. On the Design of Flow Machines. The Future of Learning, IOS Press. 2004. (available from the author's page)
• (OPTIONAL) Pachet, Francois Beyond the Cybernetic Jam fantasy: The Continuator. IEEE Computers Graphics and Applications, January/February 2004. special issue on Emerging Technologies (available through SFU e-library).

Deliverables: See Week 8

Slides: Reinfocement Learning (PDF, 326kB), Introduction to A-life (PDF, 118kB)

 

Content: Evolutionary computing (Part 1): Genetic Algorithm

Video: Brian Eno and Will Wrigh on Spore (evolutionary video game with generative music)

Readings:

• Holland, J. H. Genetic algorithms computer programs that ‘evolve’ in ways that resemble natural selection can solve complex problems even their creators do not fully understand, Scientific American, 62-72. 1992 (available online)
• Biles, J. A. GenJam: A Genetic Algorithm for Generating Jazz Solos, International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), 1994. (available online, from the Author's Web page)
• (OPTIONAL) Miranda, E. R. and Todd, P. M. A-Life and Musical Composition: A Brief Survey, Proceedings of the XXIII Annual Congress of the Brazilian Computing Society / IX Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music , Campinas, Brazil, 2003 (Published by Brazilian Computing Society - SBC) (available online, from the Author's Web page)

Deliverables:

Slides: Genetic Algorithms (PDF, 116 kB)

Content: Evolutionary computing (Part 2): Genetic Programming and Particle Swarn Optimisation

Video: Electric Sheep and their dreams in high fidelity, Scott Drakes, Dreamworks, GoogleTalk, 2006.

Readings:

• Sims, K., Interactive Evolution of Equations for Procedural Models, The Visual Computer, Aug. 1993, pp.466-476. (available online, from the Author's Web page)
• Dahlstedt, P. and Nordahl, M. G., Living Melodies: Coevolution of Sonic Communication, Leonardo, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 243-248, 2001.

Slides: Genetic Programming (PDF, 449 kB)

Content: Validation of Metacreation and Bayesian Learning

Readings:

• Ritchie, G., Some empirical criteria for attributing creativity to a computer program. Minds and Machines, Vol. 17:1, pp. 67-99, 2007.
• Colton, S., Creativity versus the Perception of Creativity in Computational Systems, Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Creative Systems, 2008.

Slides: (PDF, xxx kB)

 

Project Week - no lecture

Deliverables:

Final Papers are due. Project demonstrations should be ready.

http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates (style file to format the final paper)

 

Content: In-class presentation of students' projects