From Fingers to Digits: An Artificial Aesthetic

This book is about computer art and its relations to art of a more traditional kind. Specifically, the book focuses on generative art, in its various forms, but particularly on art for which the artists use programming, computer code, as a significant element of their work. We also deal with the context of such art, so some chapters consider much of what is often called digital art, but the focus remains on the generative. Much has been written about digital art in general, and we do not repeat what is easily read elsewhere except when understanding the context requires it. At the core of computingis software—computer programming and code. Perhaps rather strangely, the role of code in computer art has received relatively little attention; hence it is our primary focus. We aim to highlight important continuities as well as the many exciting differences. A wide range of questions is discussed, for the book is a collection of chapters—most newly written for this volume—by authors with different backgrounds. Margaret Boden is a philosopher, with a special interest in creativity and in how concepts drawn from artificial intelligence (AI) can help us understand it. Ernest Edmonds is a pioneering computer artist and a professional computer scientist. Although each chapter can stand alone, they are unified by the authors’ shared interest in the history and philosophy of computer art.
In preparing the book we interviewed a range of artists and curators and had more informal conversations with many people engaged in the art world, most with a specific interest in computing. Perhaps it is not surprising that we have found significant differences among generations.

Contents
Series Foreword
I
1 _Introduction
II
2_ A Taxonomy of Computer Art
3_ Explaining the Ineffable
4_ Art Appreciation and Creative Skills
5_ Can Evolutionary Art Provide Radical Novelty?
6_ Collingwood, Emotion, and Computer Art
7 _The Gothic and Computer Art
III
8_ Computer Art and the Art World
9_ Formal Ways of Making Art: Code as an Answer to a
Dream
10_ Programming as Art
11_ Diversities of Interaction
12 _Correspondences: Uniting Image and Sound
13 _Diversities of Engagement
IV
14 _Conversations with Computer Artists