CV
Author(s) Name(s): Penousal Machado
Contact email: machado@dei.uc.pt
Author(s) Bio (s): Penousal Machado is a teacher at the
Department of Informatics of the University of Coimbra and a
researcher of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of CISUC Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of
Coimbra. His main research interests are Evolutionary Art,
Evolutionary Computation and Computational Creativity. More
specifically, he is interested in the application of evolutionary
computation techniques to the development of artificial artists
and computer aided creativity systems.
His most well known research project in the field of
evolutionary art is NEvAr. This system started as a traditional
interactive evolutionary art tool. However, the inclusion of
automated fitness assignment schemes, allows it to
autonomously perform aesthetic judgments. The refinement of
the aesthetic abilities of NEvAr, over the years, has converted
it on what is probably the first Artificial Evolutionary Artist.
He is the author of approximately 50 papers in the fields of
Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Art and Artificial Creativity
and chair of several scientific events on Artificial Art.
Description
Title: Movement without Motion
Abstract:
We live in the world of fast food, fast cars, fast sex, fast
internet... Even art is intoxicated by the high-speed modern
world. Natural evolution is slow and seamless. Change is only
visible when we consider time scales of biological proportions.
All the beauty we see in nature is part of an ongoing openended process. We are not a product, we are part of a process.
This video is about slowness, imperceptible movement, change
that is only visible to the few that take the time to
contemplate the slow pace of evolution. It is about the process
of seamless change, not about a specific outcome. It tells no
story, except the story of itself, and therefore there is no goal
or purpose.
The video depicts an evolutionary art process showing the
transition between parent and child throughout generations.
The key frames are individuals created with NEvAr using
interactive evolution, the intermediate frames are created by
genetic cross-dissolve between images.
Technical specification
Title: Movement without Motion
Type: Video + Still images (Selected Frames from the video)
Technique: Genetic cross-dissolve between images generated
by genetic programming.
Notes (for setup, etc)
Note: The movie is very long (by very long I mean more than
10 hours) and hence the normal visitor won’t be able to see
the entire movie. I’m including 10 selected frames from the
video. These should be printed an exhibited close to the video.
Size does matter in this case. The main piece is the video the
individual frames cannot overpower it. They should therefore
be printed in small size. For instance assuming that the video
is being displayed in a 19’’ screen, the frames could be printed
in postcard size and placed next to the display. A bigger
screen can accommodate larger images.
The order of the images should not be changed, the images
should have a generic label e.g. “individual frames” and each
should be numbered.