Computing research seminars, 2006. All seminars to be held in Pimlott Lecture Theatre, (Ben Pimlott Building), unless otherwise stated.

For directions to Goldsmiths College see: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/find-us/

To be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact Mark Bishop by email: m.bishop@gold.ac.uk

Friday, 24^th November, noon (Ben Pimlott building seminar room)

A Generative Theory of Shape

Professor Michael Leyton
- Rutgers University, USA
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mleyton/homepage.htm

Abstract: This talk gives an introduction to Leyton's book *A Generative Theory of Shape* (Springer-Verlag, 2001). The purpose of the book is to develop a generative theory that has two properties regarded as fundamental to intelligence – maximizing transfer of structure and maximizing recoverability of the generative operations. These two properties are particularly important in the representation of complex shape – which is the main concern of the book. The primary goal of the theory is the conversion of complexity into understandability. For this purpose, a mathematical theory is presented of how understandability is created in a structure. This is achieved by developing a group-theoretic approach to formalizing transfer and recoverability. To handle complex shape, a new class of groups is invented, called unfolding groups. These unfold structure from a maximally collapsed version of that structure. A principal aspect of the theory is that it develops a new algebraic formalization of major object-oriented concepts such as inheritance. The consequence is an object-oriented theory of geometry. As a result, the book establishes a representational language for product and project description, that is interoperable by virtue of the principles on which the theory is based: transfer (reusability) and recoverability (traceability). Most crucially, in this theory, intelligence is brought into the very foundations of geometry.

Michael Leyton is Professor of Computing enter for Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science, (DIMACS), Rutgers University, USA

Monday, 18^th December, 5pm (Ian Guilland Lecture Theatre)

Living with creative machines

Professor George E. Lewis
- Columbia University, USA
http://www.music.columbia.edu/faculty/lewis.html

Abstract: The computer has become an irreversible part of cultural and social histories of the arts, in which improvisation has long served as a site for interdisciplinary exploration, exchanges of personal and cultural narratives, and the blurring of boundaries between art forms. For George Lewis, living, working, and performing with creative machines of his own design is closely intertwined with the study of how improvisation produces knowledge and meaning. As a kind of computer music-making embodying African-American aesthetics and musical practices, Lewis's work intersects with critical histories of new media, interactive music, and American experimentalism, as well as ethnographic and historical work on improvisation. Part memoir, part history and criticism, this talk explores, among other topics, Lewis's contention that notions about the nature and function of music inevitably become embedded in the structure of software-based music systems.

George Lewis, improvisor-trombonist, composer and computer/installation artist, studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. The recipient of a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship in 2002, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis has explored electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated forms. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improvisor, performer and interpreter is documented on more than 120 recordings. His oral history is archived in Yale University’s collection of “Major Figures in American Music,” and his published articles on music, experimental video, visual art, and cultural studies have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes. His forthcoming book, "Power Stronger Than Itself: The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians" will be published in October 2007 by the University of Chicago Press. Lewis is currently the Edwin H. Case Professor of Music at Columbia University.