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Exposition

Algorithms in Art (last edited: 2025)

About this exposition

People interested in artificial intelligence usually ask whether computers could become as intelligent and creative as humans. I decided to think about it the other way around: I'm interested in the extent to which the creative process of artists is algorithmic. It's not difficult to create something that will look like art; you just need to imitate an already existing genre or style. The challenge is to create something that will be able to trigger an art experience. In this visual essay, I'm studying where, in a spectrum of different kinds of experiences (jokes, magic tricks, pleasure from solving a mathematical or scientific problem), there are thrills triggered by art. All of these experiences depend on a sufficient amount of novelty. Therefore, the creators of experience triggers face the same problem: the impact of a joke, a magic trick, or an artwork tends to diminish when heard/seen repeatedly. The human brain has evolved in a way that it is able to distinguish repeating patterns, formulas, schemes, algorithms. Uncovering an algorithm causes pleasure. But once an algorithm is uncovered, it does not cause pleasure any more. To trigger an experience of the same intensity, we need a new trigger. In this work, I also address the question of why certain types of triggers wear off more slowly than others. The outcomes of this project are a book—a visual essay in which drawings and texts form one line of an argument—and a series of lecture-like events, in which I combine sincerity and directness of lectures, panel discussions, and guided tours with richer ways of expression typical for object theatre, performances, and magic shows.

type	research exposition
keywords	creative process, perception of art, fade rate, algorithms, pleasure, jokes, magic tricks, thrill combo, trigger miners, fitness function, ambiguity, Niépce, Poe, Berlyne, retro
date	31/12/2015
last modified	08/02/2025
status	in progress
share status	public
affiliation	Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
copyright	Magda Stanova
license	CC BY-NC-SA
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1223446/1223447
external link	http://www.magdastanova.sk/algorithms.html

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