Workshop "Genetic Algorithms in Visual Art and Music" (GAVAM'2000)

Bird-of-a-feather Workshop at the 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2000 )
8 July 2000, Las Vegas, NV

Colin G. Johnson and Juan Jesús Romero Cardalda

NEWS !!
viñeta Preliminary Scheduling (2-June-2000)
viñeta List of Available Material (2-June - 2000)
viñeta List of papers in the Proceedings.
viñeta New email list of Evolutionary Systems in Art and Music: evomusart@egroups.com

 

1. Workshop topic.

The idea of using computers for artistic activities springs from the first studies of what an intelligent machine could do. Nowadays, the worlds of music and art and the world of  computational science are getting closer. This is thanks to the findings of many researchers who, over the last decade, have used genetic algorithms and similar adaptive methods in the creation of works of art, both visual arts and music. However the methods used in these various attempts have been empirical. The aim of this workshop will be to review these various methods and work towards a methodology for taxonomizing, analysing and improving the performance of these methods.
To this end the workshop will address the following questions.

viñeta What is the current state-of-the-art in this area of work?
viñeta For what kind of systems have these methods _not_ proven successful, and why not?
viñeta What recognition have these methods received outside of the community that understands the technical details behind them?I.e. have they, or have they the potential, to "go mainstream"?
viñeta Systems have been developed which attempt to simulate the behaviour of human artists, and others which attempt to help human artists. What are the commonalities and differences between these systems?
viñeta Many of these systems make use of interactive genetic algorithms. Can we begin to lay down a foundation for the theoretical analysis of such interactive algorithms, either drawing on mathematical
theories of GA behaviour or on psychological theories of human-computer interaction and related topics?
viñeta How can these ideas be embedded into commercial products, e.g. into electronic music hardware, generative computer graphics systems?
viñeta To address related ideas such at the use of genetic algorithms in musical information retrieval, in musical performance, in the formal analysis of music.
viñeta What is the role of aesthetics and how to include aesthetics in these systems?
viñeta What are the possible relationships of evolutionary art systems and the various artistic and musical cultures?
viñeta Is there a methodology which would permit the joining together of different systems in order to develop a common evolutionary art system?
viñeta What can be the role of cooperation and competition relations within this methodology and how could you state common targets?

2. Timeliness of the proposal.

Over the last decade there have been around 15 separate attempts to use genetic algorithms towards a musical and artistic end. However there is little synthetic or comparative work between these various systems. We feel that there is a need to review this work, compare the various ideas that have been put forward, and lay the foundationsfor a more unified theory in this application area.

3. Paper submissión and Participation

People wishing to present a talk should send a paper of approximately 3 pages to the address below by 15th February 2000.
Accepted papers will be published in a supplement to the conference proceedings. The preferred format for submission is postscript files by email. If anyone is unable to send a file in electronic form then please contact the organizers.
Those interested in either attending or presenting a paper at the workshop should fill in this form. All people involved in the workshop must be registered for the main Gecco'99 conference. Details are available here.  By submitting a paper, at least one of the authors is required to attend the workshop and give the corresponding presentation. If you have any questions regarding the paper submission, please do not hesitate to contact the organizers. 

Important Dates:

viñeta Paper summary submission deadline:February 15, 2000
viñeta Decisions will be mailed by:March 15, 2000
viñeta Submissions of camera-ready papers:April 10, 2000
viñeta July 8-12, 200 Gecco 2000 (Saturday - Wednesday)

4. Organising Committee.

Colin G. Johnson Juan Jesús Romero Cardalda
Computing Laboratory
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent
CT2 7NF, England.
Email : C.G. Johnson@ukc.ac.uk
Phone : +44 1227 827562
Fax : +44 1227 762811
RNASA Lab.
Department of Computer Science
University of A Coruña
CP 15009
A Coruña, Spain
email : jj@udc.es
Phone: +34 981 167000 Ext 1043 (1302)
Fax: +34 981 167160

5. Length.

Half day (2-3 hours for presentations, and 1-2 hours for structured discussion)

6. Format of Workshop.

The format of the workshop is designed to encourage discussion of these topics and familiarization with a broad range of work in this area. To this end we will invite interested participants to give short (15-20 minute) talks, which could outline work that they have carried out but which more importantly must include a number of questions designed to provoke discussion of future directions in this area. As the talks progress these questions will be collected and second half of the workshop will be used to discuss issues raised by these questions in more depth

7. Gecco 2000 Conference

The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2000) is a recombination of the Fifth Annual Genetic Programming Conference (GP-2000) and the International Conference on Genetic Algorithms (ICGA-2000). GECCO-99 had 619 attendees and is a the largest and most inclusive conference in the field of
evolutionary computation.

8. Local arrangements:

For venue, accommodation and Local arrangements please see GECCO-2000 pages.