[spectre] Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life - November on -empyre-

[Melinda Rackham]

Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life -  November on -empyre-

Described as  "provocative, literate, subtle, and knowledgeable" [1]
Mitchell Whitelaw's "Metacreation" (MIT Press) is the first detailed
critical account of the new field of creative practice of a-life art. This
appropriation and adaptation by media artist's of the techniques from
interdisciplinary artificial life science, has produced not only artworks,
but unique generative and creative processes.

- empyre- is proud to host what promises to be a stimulating discussion,
with Mitchell Whitelaw being joined throughout the month by eminent a-life
practitioners Paul Brown (UK), Mauro Annunziato (IT),  Ken Rinaldo (US), and
Maria Verstappen (NL).

Over the month Whitelaw and guests will extrude the book's concepts -  how
artificial evolution alters the artist's creative agency;  the  complex
interactivity of artificial ecosystems; the creation of  embodied autonomous
agencies; the use of cellular automata to investigate pattern, form and
morphogenesis; and well as examining the key tenet of a-life, emergence.

Please join us at the -empyre- (http://www.subtle.net/empyre) from November
4.
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Mauro Annunziato, (http://www.plancton.com) artist and scientist, founded
the art group "PLANCTON in '94 with Piero Pierucci focussing the research on
the creative and aesthetical potentialities of chaos and artificial life,
the relation between art and science, mind and society, communication and
interaction.

Paul Brown (http://www.paul-brown.com ) is an artist and writer who has been
specialising in art and technology, especially computational and generative
art for over 40 years.  He was recently described by Mitchell Whitelaw as
"one of the unheralded pioneers of a-life art".

Ken Rinaldo ( http://accad.osu.edu/~rinaldo/ ) is an artist, theorist and
author who creates interactive multimedia installations that blur the
boundaries between the organic and inorganic. Integration of the organic and
electro-mechanical elements asserts a confluence and co-evolution between
living and evolving technological cultures.

Maria Verstappen and Erwin Driessens ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~notnot )
have worked together since 1990. They both studied at the State Academy of
Fine Arts, Amsterdam and the Academy of Fine Arts, Maastricht. They have
held numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums. They received a 1st
prize at LIFE 2.0 and LIFE 5.0, an international competition for Art &
Artificial Life, with their Tickle robot projects.
Mitchell Whitelaw (http://creative.canberra.edu.au/mitchell) is an artist,
writer and researcher in new media and audio art and culture. He is
currently Head of Program, Media / Multimedia Production, School of Creative
Communication, University of Canberra. His book, Metacreation: Art and
Artificial Life, was published in 2004 by MIT Press
(http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10080&ttype=2 )


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[1] --Margaret A. Boden, Research Professor of Cognitive Science, University
of Sussex, and author of The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms
___________________

Dr Melinda Rackham
artist | curator | producer
www.subtle.net/empyre
-empyre-  media forum