Perspectives on Aesthetic Computing

Abstract

The authors present an introduction to the new interdisciplinary area of aesthetic computing and proceed to define this area with examples from each of their own disciplines, practices and research. While several decades of publication and work have resulted in significant advancements in art as implemented through technology, less emphasis has been placed on studying the converse issue of art's effect on computing, or “aesthetic computing.” The authors present their individual work in this area and then follow with brief criticism of one another's work to elucidate different perspectives on the idea. By approaching the topic of aesthetic computing in this manner, the paper serves as an introduction to and survey and analysis of the field.

Model representation with aesthetic computing

“…The technique as described in Fishwick [2004cFishwick [ , 2002 and Fishwick et al [2003] is not meant to replace traditional notations and structures that are commonly found in mathematics and computing. If anything, it is meant to augment these, adding additional perspectives.…”

“…As of this writing, Aesthetic Computing has grown beyond the original 2000 class experiment, to encompass the following: -A web page: [AC-Webpage 2004] -A yearly class taught every Spring semester: [AC-Class 2004] -A news group: [AC-NewsGroup 2004] -Software support: [Fishwick 2004a;Kim et al 2002] -Several papers: [Fishwick 2002;Fishwick et al 2003] -An international workshop: -An edited book in progress: [Fishwick 2004b] -A manifesto: [Fishwick 2003a] The workshop involved a meeting in Dagstuhl, Germany (Dagstuhl) during the middle of July 2002. We held a week-long workshop, organized by Roger Malina, Christa Sommerer, and one author (Fishwick).…”

Entertaining with science, educating with dance

“…Fishwick's work in aesthetic computing is similar in spirit to our Turing machine dance [Fishwick et al 2005]. Aesthetic computing conceives of computation, algorithms, and coding in terms of visual models with an artistry that gives alternative ways to understand computation.…”

Measuring Aesthetics for Information Visualization

“…The interactive nature of visualizations poses high demands in terms of usability. Aesthetics should not be reduced to pleasing visual design, aesthetic qualities in interaction design also have to be considered when evaluating visualizations [4,6].…”