un-tethered

Creativity & Cognition 2009

Berkeley Art Museum & UC Berkeley

CREATIVITY IS PRESENT IN ALL WE DO

The 7th Creativity and Cognition Conference (CC09) embraced the broad theme of Everyday Creativity. This year the conference was held at the Berkeley Art Museum and focused on a series of presentations and performances aimed at addressing what Mihály Csíkszentmihályi has described as creativity with a small “c” and creativity with a big “C” (more about Csíkszentmihályi in a bit).

First impressions:

After fifteen years of attending academic conferences, this was the first time I have participated solely as an attendee and not as a presenter or organizer. I highly recommend it. My motivation for attending came from a desire to better understand the processes involved in acting creatively, particularly to inform my teaching as one of the faculty involved in the new Creative Process course. I am also currently working with computer science and biomedical engineering professors to put together an application for funding from the NSF’s CreativeIT program. Many of the Creativity and Cognition presenters are current recipients of CreativeIT grants, so attending the conference served as a way to become familiar with the kinds of projects the NSF is supporting.

As someone (like you) who makes creative decisions regularly and for whom creativity is something to be engaged in rather than a topic of study, seeing charts—lots of them—attempting to accurately name and map out the stages of creative process was both intriguing and informative. Some resonated reassuringly with my own experience while others were foreign and seemed intent on draining creativity dry, leaving it labeled and quantified but lifeless. Many of the presentations investigated the potential for digital technologies to support or enhance creative process. Generally speaking, the primary take-away point is reinforcement of a simple observation with complex implications: computers and computation have and will in the future substantively influence how we teach, study and model creativity, how we act creatively, how we experience the artifacts resulting from creative efforts and how those artifacts are manifest.

Mitral Valve Repair and Drawing

More specific highlights included artist Jane Prophet describing two collaborative projects, one with a biomimetic engineer and the other with a heart surgeon. The collaborations bring into focus some of the surprising similarities (and differences) in the patterns of creativity used by each practitioner in their respective practice. A visual that burned quickly into my memory came from a video Jane showed documenting a heart surgery performed by her collaborator, cardio thoracic surgeon Francis Wells. Having finished the operation but still bedside, the surgeon began to describe to Jane what he had done. To illustrate the stages of the surgery, he picked up a white surgical paper towel and forceps, dipped the forceps into the patient’s still-open chest cavity and drew a detailed diagram of the procedure in blood. For his medical peers in the room, what was novel was the innovative valve repair technique the surgeon had performed. For Jane, and for most of us watching the video, what was extraordinary was the setting, the surgeon’s casual use of blood as a medium, his visual acuity and skill as a draftsman, and the unexpected beauty of the drawing. It all added up to a startling example of “everyday creativity” in the surgery theatre.

Flow, Systems, and Pianists in FMRI Machines

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, author of Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, was the final speaker of the 3-day conference. He distinguishes between creativity with a small “c”—private creativity, which enriches ones life without necessarily being recognized, and creativity with a big “C”—public creativity, which changes the way a culture sees the world, understands how it works, or goes about living (defns. from one of his slides). He also presented the Systems Model of Creativity. This model “views innovation or creativity as not primarily an individual trait or process, but as a confluence of processes taking place in three related sub-systems: the Domain, or the knowledge base in which the innovation/creativity takes place; the Field, or persons who act as gatekeepers to the Domain; and the Person, who introduces a change to the Domain that is accepted by the Field” (quoted from the proceedings). There’s a lot to unpack there, so I’ll just paraphrase a couple of points. Creativity, according to Mihály, is a social construct, not a “thing,” and it is only apparent when it is valued—as determined by those who are influential in the relevant field of knowledge. As a parallel, he used the example of a suggestion box. One can leave a suggestion in the box, but that doesn’t mean those with the power to act on the suggestion will do so. The suggestion, the will of those who receive the suggestion, and a “readiness” of the general community involved must all align at least to some degree before the suggestion even has a chance of impacting society and thereby being recognized as “creative.” This view reinforces the recent shift of emphasis (in art and design) from creative individuals to creative practice as a situated, mediated, contextually dependent endeavor. Mihály’s argument still relies on knowledge domain silos, however, and it certainly could be argued that the knowledge domain “gatekeepers” he refers to are increasingly decentralized and more broadly dispersed in a loosely structured social realm of overlapping interests.

Finally, Mihály recently participated in a study of 30 concert pianists who played a two octave plastic piano while their brains were scanned in an FMRI machine.  Each pianist was first asked to play a simple tune projected on a screen in front of her or him. The pianists were then asked to improvise that tune. The FMRI scans revealed that different portions of the brain were active when reading and improvising music. The part of the brain most active during improvisation (presumably the more creative activity) is the same area activated when people play poker. It is an area of the brain associated with making decisions in the face of insufficient information. In such a circumstance, if this area of the brain is not activated, one responds to needing to make a decision with panic and fear. The area is located in the front upper portion of the right brain.

These are just a few ideas culled from two of the thirty-six talks presented at the conference. In addition to the talks, there were 35 posters, 15 demonstrations, a small art exhibition and seven live performances. A very full three days leaving little time to enjoy the warm Berkeley weather.

Walker evolving in Detroit

WalkerOne, the simulation, is part of an exhibition at Work Detroit titled Time. The simulation will run for the duration of the show (22,194 generations as of Saturday), collecting data all along that I will incorporate into new animations. Some curious juxtapositions between the simulation and the “real” world occur since WalkerOne is projected onto the top half of a large window–the lower half of the window remains an opening to the outdoors. I’ll go back later to get an image from outside at night.

Video recording of the start of the simulation: WalkerOne

WalkerOne is part of a larger project titled Character Study: Character Study explores the expressive potential of a digital creature whose movement is generated by computationally simulated evolutionary processes. Like the rabbit hole that Alice falls through into Wonderland, 3-d computer simulators are a portal to virtual worlds where the properties of physical reality can be mimicked and altered. As the first subject of inquiry in a series of character movement studies, WalkerOne was placed in such an environment and challenged to scramble as far from its starting point as possible in twenty seconds. 14 other members of WalkerOne’s generation also endeavored one at a time to roll, twitch, flop, and lunge as far and as quickly as they could with their given physical parameters. The two who were most successful were selected and moved ahead to the next generation along with thirteen new walkers whose capabilities were assigned by random mutation of the previous generation. The process continues for thousands of generations. For the purposes of Character Study, where each creature ends up—which one goes the farthest—is actually of little significance; what matters is how they get there. Rather than computationally employing the principles of evolutionary biology in order to optimize efficiency, Character Study places digital creatures in simulated environments to procure animated sequences of serendipitously poignant and expressive body movements. Out of a construct that is part scientific experiment and part situation comedy emerge bodies and behaviors that are odd and unreal, but also alluringly familiar and right. The simulations are metaphorical trial runs that test ways of being in a difficult and indifferent world; vignettes of individual potential adapting to corporeal realities and opportunities for adaptation. In other words, typical stories of daily life within a body.

Dimensional Figures and Environments: Artists Engaging Technology

Dimensional Figures and Environments: Artists Engaging Technology opened this past Tuesday at the Northern Illinois University Art Museum. The exhibition is really three small solo shows curated by Jessica Gondek of Loyola University Chicago and is part of a larger “suite” of exhibitions and events centered around the theme of art and technology. I’m exhibiting 18 pieces in the show including a few which are being displayed for the first time or are major revisions of recent works. I’ll be a guest lecturer on 15 September  and will lead a “creative uses of 3d technologies” workshop for art and engineering students 16-18 September. Images of some of the new works are here and installation shots will be added as soon as I get there to document the show (now here).

SIGGRAPH 2009–BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life

This year’s SIGGRAPH Juried Art Gallery was titled BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life. As chair of the juried art committee, I chose the theme as a way to explore artists’ responses to the increasing significance of digital technologies (socially, politically, personally, ecologically…), but particularly to the collision of technology and nature—the natural world, which includes our human selves.

The process: A panel of 25 art professionals from around the world first reviewed the 370 projects submitted in response to the BioLogic call for submissions. The 50 projects receiving the highest scores were then forwarded to 6 jurors (Suzanne Anker–School of Visual Arts, Cezanne Charles–Artserve Michigan, John Marshall–University of Michigan, Sascha Pohflepp–Royal College of Art, Sabrina Raaf–University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design, and Marcia Tanner–Independent Curator). The jurors met in person for a weekend in Chicago to collectively chose the 11 artists included in the exhibition. In the end the exhibition was a fascinating mix of sensing, moving, humming, growing, and self-documenting devices and installations. A fantastic new development for 2009: A Special Issue of Leonardo, The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology will feature the artists and projects included in BioLogic along with SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers.

This project would have never been realized without the exceptional efforts of Cezanne Charles, John Marshall, Mona Kasra, Carrie Morris, and our very fearless leader, Rebecca Strzelec. Recognition also needs to go to Ronen Barzel, the SIGGRAPH 2009 committee and staff, our new friends at Leonardo, and the artists in the show. Sincere thanks to all.

Thanks to John Marshall for these great images (and longer descriptions) of the exhibition.

Artifacts from a Parallel Universe: Tentative Architecture of Other Earth_Coastline Inhabitants
Xárene Eskandar, UCLA Design | Media Arts, Architecture
Artifacts from a Parallel Universe is a garment that emulates the breathing of its wearer, and its form is inspired by marine coral. Using sensors and shape-memory alloys embedded in hand-knitted and felted wool, this garment blurs the boundaries between garment, technology, environment, and wearer. Eskandar is an artist and architect. This piece was produced by Grant Davis in collaboration with Joshua Hernandez (electronics) and Christopher O’Leary (photography).

Biological Instrumentation
Nina Tommasi
Biological Instrumentation is a time-based spatial installation of mimosa plants, each connected by a series of tubes to an air compressor and wired with audio speakers and other electronic equipment. Algorithmically triggered compressed air forces the plants to contract. As the plants begin to open their leaves again, sound signals play from the audio speakers. This work explores the poetics involved in creating new relationships between machines and plant life. Nina Tommasi is an Austrian-born media artist and architect.

Electric Eigen-Portraits
Face Shift
Arthur Elsenaar, Nottingham Trent University
Electric Eigen-Portraits and Face Shift are original performances of algorithmic facial choreography exhibited as two video works. These works turn a computer-controlled human face into a medium for kinetic art. Arthur Elsenaar is an artist and an electrical engineer, finishing his PhD work investigating the choreographic capabilities of the computer-controlled human face. He collaborated with Remko Scha, artist, programmer, and professor of computational linguistics at the University of Amsterdam.

Fur-Fly
Kumiko Kushiyama, Tokyo Metropolitan University
Shinji Sasada and Soichiro Takeyama, Japan Electronics College
Fur-Fly is a tactile display composed of individual pieces of faux fur that uses sensor-driven computer technology to control the movement of the components in response to the user and to transform the visual effects projected onto the surface. The texture of the display surface encourages interaction. Kumiko Kushiyama is an artist, interaction designer, and professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Shinji Sasada is an artist and advanced computer graphics designer. Soichiro Takeyama is studying advanced technology and computer graphics at Japan Electronics College.

Growth Rendering Device
David Bowen, University of Minnesota Duluth
Growth Rendering Device is a kinetic installation that records the growth of a pea plant over a 24-hour period. It displays a dialog among plant, environment, machine, and maker all working to thrive, to grow. David Bowen is an artist and assistant professor of sculpture and physical computing at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His work has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Hylozoic Soil
Philip Beesley, University of Waterloo
Hylozoic Soil is a visually striking and multifaceted installation. Made up of a network of micro-controllers, proximity sensors, and shape-memory alloy actuators, this interactive environment draws the viewer into its shimmering depths. Philip Beesley is an artist, architect, and professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo. Hylozoic Soil was recently awarded first-prize honors at VIDA 11.0.

Mr. Lee Experiment
Sanghun Lee, Jayoung Kim, Hyomi Mun, Jungmi Kim, and Junghwan Sung, Soongsil University
Mr. Lee Experiment is an interactive installation that allows the viewer to move human experimental subjects between different environments that can then be observed. In this work, humans have been reduced to the same status as other species, that of experimental subjects. Sanghun Lee, Jayoung Kim, Hyomi Mun, Jungmi Kim, and Junghwan Sung, all from the Media Department at SoongSil University, have created this work drawing on expertise across interactive media art, sound art, filmmaking, hardware and software design, and electronics.

MSOrgm (Motivational Sensitive Organism)
Scottie Chih-Chieh Huang and Shen-Guan Shih, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
MSOrgm (Motivational Sensitive Organism) is a robot designed to interact with the viewer in a more personal and subtle way. This robot plant presents the viewer with restrained and graceful gestures, and collaborates with viewers’ movements using cameras and facial recognition software. Scottie Huang is an artist and architect interested in tangible human-computer interfaces. Shen-Guan Shih is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

One
Yoon Chung Han, UCLA Design | Media Arts
Gautam Rangan, UCLA Design | Media Arts
Erick Oh, UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media
Mubbasir Kapadia, UCLA Computer Science Department
One is an interactive piece consisting of a single drop of ink in a suspended Petri dish and a large projection of the same drop. Viewer interaction with the suspended dish is the means of evolution for the animated ink blot. Yoon Chung Han is an artist and designer specializing in interactive media design. Gautam Rangan is an artist and designer creating animations for the Discovery Science channel. Erick Oh is an award-winning animation artist based in Los Angeles.

TRANSDUCERS
Verena Friedrich, University of Art and Design Offenbach
TRANSDUCERS is an installation composed of several glass tubes, each encasing a single human hair collected from different individuals. Triggered by the machinery, the human hair is stimulated to react, and the reaction is transduced into an audible output. Every audible result provides a technological interpretation of identity. Verena Friedrich is a German artist with a deep interest in science and technology. Shown internationally, her work has also been granted the \international\media\award\2005 for science and art from ZKM Karlsruhe.

Post Global Warming Survival Kit
Petko Dourmana
Post Global Warming Survival Kit is an installation that can only be experienced in infrared. In this post-apocalyptic world, viewers are invited to experience something that is at once bleak and beautiful, at a coastal outpost at land’s end. Petko Dourmana is a media artist based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Post Global Warming Survival Kit was one of eight works nominated for a Transmediale 2009 Award.