Review Article Open Access

Dario Lanza, Lovotics 2014, 1:1DOI: 10.4172/2090-9888.1000102

Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000102LovoticsISSN: 2090-9888 Lovotics, an open access journal

An Approach to Computational Creativity, Images from a Computer's MindDario Lanza*

Computer Science and Programming at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , Professor of Digital Rendering, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid , Render specialist working on the development of Maxwell, the state-of-the-art in rendering technology, Master of Engineering, Madrid Polytechnic University, Spain

*Corresponding author: Dario Lanza, Computer Science and Programming atMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Spain, Tel: (34) 647.52.03.06; E-mail:dario@dariolanza.com

Received August 26, 2013; Accepted November 20, 2013; Published November 27, 2013

Citation: Lanza D (2014) An Approach to Computational Creativity, Images from a Computer’s Mind. Lovotics 1: 102. doi: 10.4172/2090-9888.1000102

Copyright: © 2014 Lanza D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

AbstractDo computers need to express their creativity? Do computers think of electric poems?The term lovotics encompasses the exploration of evolved robotic behavior assuming the development of their

own emotional universe, and the different dimensions of the relationship human-robot appeared from that point. This paper explores the idea of the computer, not just as the mute tool at the service of our creativity, but instead as a prospect creative entity itself, taking its first steps as it attempts to imitate the creativity it sees we are able. What would it do? The idea of a computer trying to create competent poetry is certainly worth our consideration.

Keywords: Creative computing; lovotics; artificial creativity;development of human-like emotions; algorithmic writing

ExplorationContrary to what true current artificial intelligence systems like

AARON [1] are proposing – being images actually generated by the computer intelligence imitating the human drawing– these images show a more stylish and personal view of how the first attempts of a computer to imitate our creative ability would be. I explore an intelligence more interested in playing with meanings, concepts And the ideas of the things –more like conceptual artist did– and the new ideas that can emerge from the juxtaposition of similar or opposite concepts, rather than simply depicting the things themselves. The results of that combination of concepts could be meaningless if the computer fails in its associations, silly in other attempts, but definitely promising and suggestive in some others.

These first creations would be in the form of very basic rhyming couplets and elemental visual verses, as the computer can only play with the very few concepts it manage to understand: networking, the technology of communication, chips, instant messages, the electronic devices that we plug into it... These are the only cultural references it has at its disposal. With these few ingredients making up its limited universe, my guess is that it lovotic computer would come up with something like this: A collection of visual verses, half-failure, half-success; some a naïve reminder of the silly poems of childhood, but others which hint at a more sophisticated intelligence. Whether the computer aims at self-expression or to impress us –its audience– is not clearly revealed.

In a similar way as the affective algorithms [2], the artificial intelligence would employ probabilistic mathematical algorithms -mainly combinatorial routines- to juxtapose the few concepts thatconfigure its small semantic universe two by two, in the search ofan eventual new meaning. Although there are many areas where thecomputer brain is stronger than ours [3], the innocence of these images are expressing the first attempts of using its immature creativity, alsonoticeable in the absence of irony, subtlety or criticism usual in ourmature expression. In some ways it reminds our human creativity,but more particularly our children’s first school creations for Father’sDay. Surely, in a short time and if the evolution of the computer brainwere similar to ours, it will evolve, producing more ambitious andsophisticated creations and will develop the capability to express itself

in an entirely new way of its own, but until then it first starts learning from an imitative process, like all of us one day did. I’m particularly interested in portraying the momentum of that crucial first step forward.

Rendering the Creative AttemptsFormally the "visual poems" take the form of 3D renders which

have been polished to the absolute Photorealism –100% computer-generated realities attempting to look like 100% real objects. It is as if the computer devoted all its energy to the imitation of the analogous world outside its screen. To fully explore this concept, using the digital medium and creating the images within a computer seemed the logical choice: the medium fitting the concept until they both become indistinguishable.

To create the images, after filling hundred of sketches searching for ideas, objects and views that would work, I selected the best ones and used a 3D modelling software to build the objects themselves. Textures, materials and lighting were created with special attention, as the final effect the images produce rely heavily on the realism and on display impossible objects but in a way that your eye would hardly accept they don’t exist. I used an unbiased renderer to achieve a photo realistic feel, while a monochrome tone gives them a note of nostalgia.

The images suggest rather than dictate an interpretation, inviting us into a state of free association about our electronic culture. They await the viewer’s own sense of meaning.

The connections between creativity and art are suggested by the computer itself: Figures 1-7.

Maybe more successfully than other images in this series, the picture Darwin 2.0 connects the concepts of history, evolution, technology and art more closely and with a deeper poetical sense.

Lovotics

Lovotics

ISSN: 2090-9888

Citation: Lanza D (2014) An Approach to Computational Creativity, Images from a Computer’s Mind. Lovotics 1: 102. doi: 10.4172/2090-9888.1000102

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Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000102LovoticsISSN: 2090-9888 Lovotics, an open access journal

Figure 1: Electric Poetry, opus 12 a message in a bottle, where the message is a Facebook post. The sea appears inside the bottle, instead of outside.

Figure 2: Electric Poetry, opus 11 the carrier pigeon is both messenger and message.Today, in the throes of the digital revolution, we will have to face the challenge of teaching the computer on beauty.

Figure 3: Electric Poetry, opus 21, typefaces inside a first aids kit, the news as the cure. ABC Museum of Drawing, Illustration and Contemporary Art. Madrid.

Figure 5: Electric Poetry, opus 06 : smartphone, a photographic camera mounted on a telephone.

Figure 4: Electric Poetry, opus 22 the image that closes the series, playing with the concepts of realism and pessimism. Hyperrealism in form, but hyperpessimism in concept: the glass deforms the reality making us see it always half-empty.

Labelled and pinned like the insects in the collection of a naturalist, a vacuum valve and a silicon chip are displayed there to show the

Figure 6: Evolution and technology, Darwin 2.0, 2009. C-print, unique. 21×40 cm.

Figure 7: Electric Poetry, opus 05: videogames, interpreted like old paper hand-made toys.

Figure 8: Electric Poetry, opus 02: eBook

Citation: Lanza D (2014) An Approach to Computational Creativity, Images from a Computer’s Mind. Lovotics 1: 102. doi: 10.4172/2090-9888.1000102

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Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000102LovoticsISSN: 2090-9888 Lovotics, an open access journal

evolution of the technology and of the electronic “bugs” during the last century. The silicon chip, that in fact looks like a beetle, provides a metaphorical point in the image.

A Final WordThis project is the result of an exploration about the suggestive idea

of what would a computer do if it one day started to think creatively.

I picture a computer that watches at us from the other side of the glass screen feeling a certain admiration about our creative capacity, which is the only feature its super strong brain can not do.

At this point, and if the machine somehow takes that step forward, I don’t see it performing an exuberant colorful creative catharsis, but timidly replicating some of the attitudes and roles it sees for us, in my case in the form of producing visual rhymes mimicking the way we create double meanings and ironic concepts by the juxtaposition of two other simpler concepts. In addition to that, the computer could only play with the few concepts it manage to understand, like networking, communication technologies or the electronic devices we use to plug into it as its small conceptual universe.

The way children produce their first creative works –poems, drawings– at school trying to behave like adults do, sometimes failed, sometimes silly, always naïve but loaded with innocence, effort and pride, were the main inspiration for the design of the works themselves.

The results can be comical in some cases; they may invite a smile, but perhaps only a wry half-smile. For they also represent the first aspirations of a computer to be like us, here we see a gesture of admiration –like what a young brother feels for his older brother– but one that opens up the intriguing possibility that those aspirations could become reality. And I'm interested in that particular point: Once the creative dreams of the computer were realized, would there be a glimmer of admiration for its human creators left? Or definitely not?

I invite to consider the beauty and innocent meaning of each image, but also reflect on the implications of the evolution of the artificial brain and the artificial soul behind them.

Are these visual couplets merely playful? Or is it just that we don't understand them entirely yet?

References

1. Cohen H “AARON. Genetics and Culture”, Design Media Arts 98T.

2. Samani HA, Saadatian E (2012) A multidisciplinary artificial intelligencemodel of an effective robot. International. Journal of Advanced RoboticSystems, InTech 1-11.

3. Samani HA, Kwan JT, et al. (2012) Towards robotics leadership: An analysis of leadership characteristics and the roles robots will inherit in future humansociety. Interactive and Digital Media Institute, National University ofSingapore, 160-165.