Creative Collaborations with Machines

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. This paper analyzes creative practice including virtual music composition by a human and sets of computer programs, improvisation of music and dance in human-robot ensembles, and drawings produced by a human and a robotic arm. In all of these exampl...

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Main Author: Sandry, Eleanor
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/57240
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author Sandry, Eleanor
author_facet Sandry, Eleanor
author_sort Sandry, Eleanor
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description © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. This paper analyzes creative practice including virtual music composition by a human and sets of computer programs, improvisation of music and dance in human-robot ensembles, and drawings produced by a human and a robotic arm. In all of these examples, the paper argues that creativity arises from a process of human-robot collaboration. Human influences on the machines involved exist at many levels, from initial creation and programming, via processes of reprogramming and setup of underlying data and parameters, to engagement throughout the process of creative production. The decision to value a machine as a creative other is supported most strongly when collaborating with the machine directly, while witnessing the creative team at work, as opposed simply to seeing the result, is more likely to bring an audience to a similar understanding. The creativity of the human-machine collaborations analyzed in this paper relies on close interaction, within which there is a continual recognition of the otherness of the machine and its nonhuman abilities. Such relations can be theorized by extending Emmanuel Levinas’ conception of the face-to-face encounter within which self and other are brought into proximity, but the alterity of the other is nonetheless retained. The paper’s analysis of creative interactions between humans and robots supports the idea that machines need not be regarded as challenging human artistic practice, but rather enable new ways for creativity to arise through human-machine collaborations within which human and nonhuman creative abilities are combined.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-572402017-11-06T01:26:05Z Creative Collaborations with Machines Sandry, Eleanor © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. This paper analyzes creative practice including virtual music composition by a human and sets of computer programs, improvisation of music and dance in human-robot ensembles, and drawings produced by a human and a robotic arm. In all of these examples, the paper argues that creativity arises from a process of human-robot collaboration. Human influences on the machines involved exist at many levels, from initial creation and programming, via processes of reprogramming and setup of underlying data and parameters, to engagement throughout the process of creative production. The decision to value a machine as a creative other is supported most strongly when collaborating with the machine directly, while witnessing the creative team at work, as opposed simply to seeing the result, is more likely to bring an audience to a similar understanding. The creativity of the human-machine collaborations analyzed in this paper relies on close interaction, within which there is a continual recognition of the otherness of the machine and its nonhuman abilities. Such relations can be theorized by extending Emmanuel Levinas’ conception of the face-to-face encounter within which self and other are brought into proximity, but the alterity of the other is nonetheless retained. The paper’s analysis of creative interactions between humans and robots supports the idea that machines need not be regarded as challenging human artistic practice, but rather enable new ways for creativity to arise through human-machine collaborations within which human and nonhuman creative abilities are combined. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/57240 10.1007/s13347-016-0240-4 restricted
spellingShingle Sandry, Eleanor
Creative Collaborations with Machines
title Creative Collaborations with Machines
title_full Creative Collaborations with Machines
title_fullStr Creative Collaborations with Machines
title_full_unstemmed Creative Collaborations with Machines
title_short Creative Collaborations with Machines
title_sort creative collaborations with machines
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/57240