What is generative art?

Abstract

There are various forms of what's sometimes called generative art, or computer art. This paper distinguishes the major categories and asks whether the appropriate aesthetic criteria—and the locus of creativity—are the same in each case.

Keywords:

• computer art
• generative art
• interactive art
• computational creativity

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for helpful comments given to us by Dustin Stokes, of the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex. This paper forms part of the research supported by AHRC Grant no. B/RG/AN8285/APN19307: Computational Intelligence, Creativity, and Cognition: A Multidisciplinary Investigation. The work was also partly funded by the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design, which is established and supported under the Australian Government's Research Centres Programme.