Talk by Peter Bentley 7.30 pm at the Lighthouse Media Centre, Brighton followed by work in progress by Alice Eldridge and Sam Woolfr at Sumo Bar, Brighton.

Peter Bentley is a scientist who does research in Evolutionary Computation and Digital Biology, investigating evolutionary algorithms, ecological modelling, artificial immune systems, computational development and swarming systems and applying these techniques to diverse applications including design, control, novel robotics, fraud detection, security, and music composition. He is editor of the books Evolutionary Design by Computers, Creative Evolutionary Systems and On Growth, Form and Computers, and author of the popular science book Digital Biology. Peter's talk was entitled: A Short History of Creative Evolutionary Computation. Here is the abstract:

In this talk, I describe my experiences in creative evolutionary computation, using a number of different research projects that I have been involved with as examples. I describe the differences between optimisation and creative problem-solving, and illustrate how novel shapes, designs, architecture, music, and art can be evolved by computer. Through these diverse applications, I describe what I havelearned about computers, creativity, and evolution. I also explain why evolution combined with developmental processes hold the key to the next stage in creative computer evolution.

After the talk, there were two works in progress downstairs at the Sumo bar:

Alice Eldridge ran an experiment on her laptop that investigated the potential of visual and auditory information for analysing cellular automata patterns. She managed to find enough willing and sober participants to run a pilot test which later led to productive research that was published in the Artificial Life journal in spring 2006 as 'Issues in Auditory Display'.

Sam Woolf showed two films with generative sound tracks:
Mincemeat and Textures. Inspired after seeing a performance by Japanese Fluxus artist Yasunao Tone, Sam adapted The vOICe software to automatically generate sound tracks for the two films.