Goldsmiths Department of Computing is taking a lead role in the 5th International Conference on Computational Creativity, 10-13 June 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Computational Creativity is the art, science, philosophy and engineering of computational systems which, by taking on particular responsibilities, exhibit behaviours that unbiased observers would deem to be creative.

As a field of research, this area is thriving, with progress in formalising what it means for software to be creative, along with many exciting and valuable applications of creative software in the sciences, the arts, literature, gaming and elsewhere.

• Download the conference postcard (pdf)
• Conference website

Two papers that offer an overview of computational creativity

• Simon Colton and Geraint A. Wiggins: Computational Creativity: A Final Frontier?. Proceedings of ECAI, 2012.
• Amilcar Cardoso, Tony Veale, and Geraint A. Wiggins: Converging on the Divergent: The History (and Future) of the International Joint Workshops in Computational Creativity. AI Magazine, 30(3):15-22, 2009.

• About Computational Creativity at Goldsmiths

Call for Participation: 10th Annual TaPRA Conference, hosted by Royal Holloway, 3-5 September 2014, Royal Holloway, London.

Re-envisaging Performance and ‘New’ Technologies: Evolving contexts, Emerging Practices, Current Challenges, New Directions

Call deadline: 30 April 2014

The Performance and New Technologies Working Group invites contributors to reconsider performance and ‘new’ technologies by reflecting on current contexts, practices, and theories. The aim of the 2014 call is to examine how this area of practice and research has evolved, to appraise its current significance and envisage future directions. This investigation and self-reflection is framed by rapid, latter-day socio-technical developments such as social networking, internet of things, cloud computing, and augmented reality, and their transformative impact on the cultural landscapes of today.

Interplays between performance/theatre and technology date back to the origins of theatre history (Reilly 2013). Nevertheless, their recent negotiations and ‘entanglements’ (Salter 2010) are marked by an era where humanist notions of materiality, embodiment and alterity are being reconfigured giving rise to major socio-cultural shifts as well as ontologically novel performance paradigms (Giannachi 2004, Broadhurst 2011, Dixon 2007, Causey 2006, Chatzichristodoulou, Jefferies and Zerihan 2009, among others). These developments reshape the ways we make and experience theatre and performance and pose questions that problematise the particular research area, specifically:

What is new about ‘new’ technologies in theatre and performance? Which are the new performance practices, methodological approaches, and theoretical paradigms? How does the terrain of performance and technology cross over, inform, and challenge other areas of enquiry in theatre and performance studies? What is at stake for theatre and performance once it becomes repositioned as less of a “human-centered affair” (Salter, 2010: xxvii)? How does it engage with machines, objects, matter and ‘actors’ (Latour 1987) rather than ‘props’ subservient to human creativity? Finally, self-reflexively for the Working Group itself – does performance and ‘new’ technologies continue to constitute a distinct field of practice and research?

Proposals might consider the following issues, though these are not exclusive:

• re-envisaging the field and remapping terrains: performance and technology, digital and networked performance, and intermedial performance practices
• performance and (anti-)social networking
• non-human theatre: machinic agency and affect
• live algorithms: new interpretations of liveness in performance and theatre practice
• geopolitical shifts: technologies of colonialism in the service of performance
• connectivity, access, participation: the democratisation of performance
• outsourcing labour and user engagement: the ethics of virtual and networked theatre and performance practice
• expanding/limiting audience communities: digital and mixed-reality negotiations between the individual and the group, the user and the theatre crowd
• the role of performance and theatre within Digital Humanities.

Proposals
Please send a 300 word proposal, a short biographical statement, and an outline of technical requirements by 30th April to both Maria Chatzichristodoulou and Eirini Nedelkopoulou.

Proposals may be directed into a range of presentational formats: traditional panels (with 20 minute papers); pre-circulated papers that form the basis for a short presentation and discussion; or, where appropriate, performance-based panels. While we welcome statements of preference, final decisions will be made by the working group convenors and will be indicated at the time of acceptance. We welcome alternative, practice-as-research or performative proposals that engage rigorously with the theme, but these must be achievable with limited resources and within a 20-30 minute time period.

Adapted from a call for participation on the TaPRA conference website

Undergraduate students are invited to submit any computing project you completed during the academic year 2013-14, to compete for one of three Innovation Awards.

• Best Creative Work (Art or Music)
• Best Product Idea
• Best Software

The Innovation Award is a cross-university challenge organised by Conrad Grant, President of Goldsmiths Student Union (2013-14).

The cash prizes will be awarded to successful exploitation of a unique idea from part of your studies at Goldsmiths this year. The shortlisting judges from the Department of Computing will be looking for technical creativity, emotional engagement and originality.

15-20 shortlisted candidates will present their projects at the undergraduate EXPO show at the Amersham Arms on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 June 2014. Judges from the computing industry will attend the show and award three prizes for best artwork/music, best product and best software.

Enter the competition

Please email p.fry@gold.ac.uk by 5pm Sunday 11 May 2014, giving:

1. your name
2. your programme (eg, BSc Creative Computing) and year (ie, first/second/third)
3. a link to a website featuring a description of your project and a demo video.

The Goldsmiths logo must appear at the top of your website’s homepage. Your demo video must begin and end with around 4 seconds of the Goldsmiths titlecard.

• Read about the Goldsmiths Computing Expo 2013

Terms and conditions

• You must be a first, second or third year undergraduate student in Goldsmiths’ Department of Computing.
• The project you submit must be something you created this academic year as part of your academic studies. It could be your final project.
• You must be available to put up, present and dismantle an exhibition stand featuring your work at the EXPO at 9am-5pm Tuesday 3 June and 12noon-11pm Wednesday 4 June 2014. Department staff can help you to plan and source equipment for your exhibition.
• By entering the Innovation Awards, you give the Department of Computing the right to publicise your work online and in the media, using texts, images and video content from the website you submit.
• The judges’ decisions are final.

The possibility of falling in love (and having sex) with robots, and the future use of Artificial Intelligence to decide who lives and dies on the battlefield were just two of many topics discussed at Goldsmiths, University of London last week.

On 1–4 April, Goldsmiths hosted the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) Convention 2014 (known as AISB50). This year’s convention commemorated the 50th anniversary of the AISB, and marked 60 years since the death of the founding father of computer science and AI, Alan Turing.

The convention investigated the constantly evolving relationship between humans and machines, including:

• Love and sex with robots
• The future of art and computing: a post-Turing centennial perspective
• Should AI be used to make ‘kill decisions’ on the battlefield?
• What could Robotics contribute to Language Sciences?

Speaking before the conference, Kate Devlin, Lecturer in Computing said: “Everyone here at Goldsmiths is excited and honoured to host AISB50, especially given that 2014 is such significant year for computer science. AI is a hugely important topic and one that can have an impact on every aspect of life – from love to war to art.”

Speakers included: Professor Susan Stepney (University of York), Professor Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University); Dr Hannah Smithson (University of Oxford); John Barnden (University of Birmingham); Professor Humberto Maturana (Instituto de Formación Matriztica, Chile); and Professor Terence Deacon (University of California, Berkeley). Goldsmiths’ own Professor Simon Colton also delivered one of the public lectures.