Digital Art and Philosophy

Class 4. Natural Aesthetics: BioArt, Biomimicry, Generative Art, SynBio.

Special Guest Speaker: Digital Artist Danielle Siembieda (http://siembieda.com/)!

The slides for Session #4 are here (http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/digital-art-and-philosophy-4). Optional readings:

• “What is Generative Art?” (Margaret Boden, 2009, Sections I and V) PDFs of all readings (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5344454/DigitalArt.zip)

• “The Further Exploits of AARON, [the artificial intelligence] Painter" (Harold Cohen, 1995) PDFs of all readings (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5344454/DigitalArt.zip)

For our discussion, please consider machine-generated art and the issues that might arise like creative process, aesthetics, cultural co-creation, archival, and ownership.

This class provides an understanding of digital art and related philosophical issues. Readings covering the main themes of each class are listed. The class consists of the presentation of digital art examples together with a discussion of the assigned readings and other text excerpts. Readings are preliminary and may be subject to change.

Instructor: Melanie Swan works at the intersection of technology, philosophy, and aesthetics with projects including data visualization in virtual worlds and simulation as performance. She has a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University. She is a faculty member at Singularity University and an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Location and Time: Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno St. (near Columbus and Grant). Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30 pm., February 12-March 12.

Syllabus: click here (http://openthoughtspace.pbworks.com/w/page/61886699/PCA)

Course Readings in PDF form: click here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5344454/DigitalArt.zip)

Questions? Contact the instructor: MelanieSwan.com/contact.html (http://melanieswan.com/contact.html).