Generative Art and Design: Critical Assessments

Workshop November 25–28 2008, by application
Public lecture November 25 at 6pm, open to all
Fabrica, Treviso

Lecture: Generative Art and Design: critical assessments
Every day it’s getting simpler to hack semi-autonomous software that will generate fonts, images, video, music, text, furniture and even housing.The outputs are cheap, novel, plentiful, and commonly look like nothing else on earth. However: are they any good? How does one tell an exciting conceptual and practical breakthrough from the ancient computer problem of “garbage in, garbage out?” Where are the standards of excellence, and how can one justify those judgments? How much human interaction is required (if any)? And what is the human response to generated designs, artworks and products?

Workshop: Designing processes rather than art
The morning of day 1 will be dedicated to an “Introduction to Generative Art and Design.” We will learn about some of the critics’ darlings in this field, such as Marius Watz, Jared Tarbell, Neri Oxman, Ben Fry, CEB Reas, Giorgio Olivero and John Maeda. What is it they think they are doing? What is “Processing” and why do graphic artists think it’s important? In the afternoon we will see what “Effective complexity” is and what does it look (and sound) like? Is complexity the killer application for generative art, or is it a confusing trap? From day 2 we will focus on the hands-on workshop assignment “Designing processes rather than art”. The workshop will be dedicated to creating physical process models and generative art.

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