Finding aesthetic pleasure on the subjective edge of chaos: A proposal for robotic creativity

This is a lecture I gave at Goldsmiths College in London on May 16th 2006 as part of a Workshop on Computational Models of Creativity in the Arts.

In the talk, I give the nine axioms that constitute my approach to creating systems that exhibit creativity. The axioms are:

• Axiom 1: If you make your robot pleasure-seeking, and make creativity pleasurable, you'll make your robot creative
• Axiom 2: To be a good creator, it helps to be an appreciator
• Axiom 3: Let the robot experience output in the real world, as we do
• Axiom 4: We won’t like what it likes unless it likes what we like
• Axiom 5: An important motivator is the approval or attention of others
• Axiom 6: Sometimes it is better not to try pursue novelty directly, but something that is correlated with it
• Axiom 7: Let dynamics play a role in appreciation
• Axiom 8: Patterns in one's own states can be the objects of appreciation
• Axiom 9: The best way to make outputs in the real world is to be embodied in the real world

But you'll have to listen to the talk if you want to know what all that means!

Media:

• PodSlides: iPod-ready video (.mp4; 38.1 MB; 21 min 38 sec)
• audio (.mp3; 10 MB; 21 min 38 sec)
• Powerpoint file (.ppt; 2.1 MB)
• Three-page summary (.pdf)