EMBRACING THE ACCIDENTAL AND BEING HUMAN

 Newly prepared canvases [linen] This is the first stage.

 Newly prepared canvases [linen] and some pristine blank canvases
   

Newly prepared canvases [linen] and some blank canvases

 

 

AI AND CREATIVITY

 

THE LION KING
This week I went to the fantastic musical, The Lion King at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre [QPAC]. The singing, staging, costumes, puppetry, the music...it was all just fabulous, like many performances I've been to at QPAC.

 

Watching The Lion King I felt a great sense of awe for human endeavour and creativity. Whilst the performance seemed flawless to me, it probably was not...each performance will bring its own set of issues and surprises for the performers and support crew...and that's what makes creativity, exhibition and performance so exhilarating. It's professional practice to deal with surprises [good and bad], 'mistakes', the unintended. But, could artificial intelligence deal with them? With each challenge, could AI improvise? If there was a group of AI-enabled entities would there be a divergence amongst them in reaction to surprise and the unintended? If so, how would they choose which improvisation to work with? Above all, would they feel exhilaration in response to what is essentially a intrinsic part of the creative process?

A GRADE 4 ART CLASS
Many years ago I was a guest artist in a grade 4 class. The children were going to paint on paper.  Within the first couple of minutes of starting one young fellow put up his hand to ask if he could have another piece of paper, 'because he had made a mistake.' I said 'No, you cannot, because you have been given an opportunity to problem solve and improvise.' I counselled him that artists do not give up that easily. We reflect upon the unexpected to see how we can develop its potential.

Well...that's what I do...and I am sure others do as well.

And, you can imagine my kids' frustrations with me over the years!

After the class the teacher commented on my approach to a 'mistake'. She said she would have given the young fellow another piece of paper, but my response had really made her think.

How would an AI cope with paint dropping or smudging? And, think about this question literally and metaphorically.

THE ACCIDENTAL
Maybe if we lose the ability to see the accidental, mistakes, the unintended, surprise and the unexpected as holding creative potential, then we are no longer really human and thus more vulnerable to technological manipulation? We are, in fact, no longer important...

Maybe if this happens technology can stomp on us like we are ants?

PHOTOGRAPHS
So, why the photographs above? Each photo shows newly prepared and stretched canvases. The prepared canvases show my process of embracing accident! What you see is just the first stage. I allow the paint to do its own thing. How will they end up...who knows?!

EXCITING NEWS

 

PANDORA WEB ARCHIVE
Yesterday I received an official request from the State Library of Queensland to allow PANDORA [Australia's web archive - National Library of Australia and partners] to archive my Blog...

 

YES this one you are reading now! 

 

PANDORA is an official site for archiving 'online publications and websites of lasting significance' and 'research value' in perpetuity. Check out the State Library of Queensland's selection criteria page and you will see why I am really so very happy that my eight year old Blog has been acknowledged this way. 

 

OOO SYMPOSIUM 

 

 

 

 

My proposal for a paper/presentation was accepted and I am one of the speakers at:

Seeing Things: OOO Symposium For Creative Researchers

 

Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia.

Thursday 20 November 2014 8.30am  - 4.30 am

 

My topic is:

Cosmic Perspectives

 

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Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com