Open discussion: Interdisciplinarity and Computational Creativity

[Carlos León]

Rafael Pérez y Pérez proposes the next topic for discussion:

Creativity is an extraordinary complex phenomena. I am convinced that CC can make important contributions to its understanding. However, to achieve that goal we need to collaborate with people from the humanities and the social sciences. It is not enough to share with them our systems and exchange ideas; it is not enough to get feedback from them; we need them to get heavily involved in the discussions and design decisions of our models. This implies that they need to learn about computer science; in the same way, we need to learn about their traditions, methodologies and conceptions of the world. I wonder how many interdisciplinary teams exist in our community. Do you collaborate in interdisciplinary groups? We need to promote learning and research contexts that promote interdisciplinary CC work.

You are all kindly invited to comment on the topic.

[Maya Ackerman]

I couldn't agree more, collaborations with other disciplines are essential for CC. My team at Florida State University has been collaborating with our Dance Department, and it has been a rewarding and productive experience (http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~ackerman/research.html?#dance). I haven't had any direct collaborations with the humanities so far, but I incorporate the work of Keith Sawyer in my computational creativity course, who offers a social science view of creativity. 

[Martin Mumford]

Collaboration has lead to some fun breakthroughs in my work with computational game design/visual creativity. There are two major benefits I have gained from interdisciplinary collaboration (although admittedly only in feedback roles so far, not quite the full, ideal project collaboration).

The first benefit came from interviewing and discussing the creative process with student illustrators. Witnessing firsthand someone else self-reflecting and refining their style even during act of creating something has inspired some cool computational starting points (such as serendipity and the idea of deliberately stimulating "accidental" inspiration). 

Second is a practical sense of utility that came from speaking about artificial intelligence / artificial creativity with gamers. I've been able to strongly ground my notions of what applications of CC would actually be useful/desired/profitable vs. just a novelty in the games scene. While that hasn't led to any major academic insights, it has helped me focus my attention on tools that the industry currently needs over some of the more abstract concepts I had originally started with. After all, necessity is the mother of invention :)

[diarmuid.odonoghue]

Interdisciplinarity is key.

At Maynooth University we have been working with the (NCCA) National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University who are already an interdisciplinary group of computer graphics experts and visual artists. 70 NCCA graduates have been involved in winning recent technical Oscars (Achievement in Visual Effects - Gravity, 2014; Best Visual Effects - Interstellar, 2015; Animated Feature - Inside Out, 2016; Visual Effects - Ex Machina, 2016). The NCCA have been guiding development of the Dr Inventor (http://drinventor.eu) creativity support tool, even identifying new uses for it that we did not originally intend.

Dr Inventor aims to uncover novel and useful analogies between publications (& patents etc), to inspire its users into creating new solutions to old problems. Dr Inventor will be hosting events at two computer graphics conferences in 2016, CASA and SIGGRAPH.

Regards,

Diarmuid.

[rafapyp]

Maya, Martin, Diarmuid, your examples are very interesting. I think we should look for a space in ICCC17 to share and discuss our interdisciplinary experiences. Maybe a collective paper? Maybe a discussion panel? Any other suggestion?

[Maya Ackerman]

This sounds great. It would be great to write a collective paper. I also very much like the ideas of a discussion panel during ICCC17.

[Joe Corneli]

On Wed, Mar 23 2016, Maya Ackerman wrote:

> This sounds great. It would be great to write a collective paper. I also
> very much like the ideas of a discussion panel during ICCC17.

Hi Maya, Rafael, and all:

I'm reminded of this write-up and analysis I did of a discussion panel
from ICCC14:

http://www.creativitypost.com/technology/the_art_of_computational_creativity

And by the way there is a Nature special issue on the theme of
interdisciplinary, from just last September, interesting stuff in here:

http://www.nature.com/news/interdisciplinarity-1.18295

Joe

[Maya Ackerman]

Joe, thanks so much for sharing this! I found the ICCC 2014 discussion panel very interesting, it addressed some important foundational questions. For the 2017 panel, it may be interesting to focus on some of the practical aspects of interdisciplinary collaborations, share our experiences, and discuss the significance of computer scientists collaborating with researchers in the arts, humanities, and social sciences in the context of CC. I would also be interested in discussing models for teaching CC in ways that integrate views from different disciplines, as well as how to teach CC to students from these different backgrounds. 

[k.grace]

One possibility for this at ICCC2017 would be to host a workshop on the topic.  The format of "workshops" is entirely up to the organisers, and a panel discussion would certainly fit -- perhaps participants could submit questions to ask the panel, or one-page statements that would be circulated in advance, or there could even be no submissions at all, just participation on the day. 

That is not to preclude this happening as part of the main conference, just another possibility!

-K.