Presentation by Jon McCormack at 7.30pm at The Hope, 11- 12 Queens Road, Brighton

Jon McCormack is a leading Australian-based electronic media artist and researcher in Artificial Life and Evolutionary Music and Art. His research interests include generative evolutionary systems, machine learning, L-systems and developmental models.

In this talk Jon gave an overview of how he has used generative processes as a creative system. His aim is to enable new modes of creative expression with computation that are unique to the medium. Most existing software tools borrow their operational metaphor from existing creative practices: for example Photoshop uses the metaphor of a photographer's darkroom; 3D animation systems borrow from theatre, film and conventional cell animation. In a tool with an oeuvre as diverse as the modern digital computer, one would hope that computation itself as a medium might have things to offer that are not based on metaphors borrowed from other media. Jon illustrated some possibilities using the software systems he has developed over the last 15 years and the creative works that he has produced with them. These works include: Turbulence: an interactive museum of unnatural history (1994); Eden an evolutionary ecosystem (2000-2005) and the Morphogenesis series of evolved forms (2002-2006). Examination of these works were placed in a philosophical framework and historical context. He also discussed some possibilities for future development of generative software based on these ideas.

He is currently Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and co-director of the Centre for Electronic Media Art (CEMA) at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. CEMA is an interdisciplinary research centre established to explore new collaborative relationships between computing and the arts. Jon's artworks have been exhibited internationally a wide variety of galleries, museums and symposia, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Tate Gallery(Liverpool, UK), ACM SIGGRAPH (USA), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia).

This event was organized in collaboration with Lighthouse.