What is generative art?

Maggie Boden gave a talk on 'What is generative art?' at the University of Sussex today. She primarily focused on computer generated art and outlined a taxonomy that aims to distinguish different types, for example, electronic, interactive, computer-aided, robotic and generative. She admitted that many of these categories overlap and that they do not always tally with common usage which is inconsistently applied. Although some of the categories she uses relate to what one might call 'traditional' forms of art, such as painting and sculpture, as well as to conceptual art, most apply to art created using technology that was not available until after WW2. In particular, the digital computer.





Jon McCormack's Eden: an interactive sonic ecosystem



In a second talk Maggie will focus on the philosophical issues raised by computer generated art, but she suggested that applying computers creatively has led to radical changes in art. Firstly, the generality of digital computers means that they have the potential to generate more complex forms than traditional artistic tools, perhaps even forms that cannot, at the outset be imagined. Using Jon McCormack's phrase, Maggie argued that they enable artists to explore the computational sublime.

Secondly, digital computers enable artists to diminish or even completely relinquish their control over the artistic process, thereby 'shifting the locus of creativity'.




A close up of Jon McCormack's Eden



Technology is enabling powerful new forms of creative expression; Maggie's paper seems like a good place to start a discussion about how and why this is the case.