Earlier today, I wrote about AI and photography based on an interesting panel conversation at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo. During the Q&A session, a musician in the audience said that he felt that the AI systems he had tried behaved so properly and asked if an AI can be “drunk” and whether we could “pour some alcohol into the machine” to make it a little freer and less “stiff” in its creative output. That is a very interesting question, hence this little reflection. ...
Today, I took part in an interesting panel conversation at Fotografiens Hus in Oslo in connection with the exhibition What We Call Real by Camila Urrego. This was the first time they had invited a photographer to exhibit works explicitly made “with AI,” and I was invited to contribute thoughts on the potential of AI for creative practice (in this case, photography). As MishMash picks up speed, I receive many requests for talks and panels on AI and creativity, and I try to say yes when I can make it. I have found this to be an excellent way to think about various AI use cases outside my core focus areas and to meet interesting people. Here are some thoughts based on my preparatory notes and reflections after the event. ...
Yesterday, I wrote about the history and future of AI in general. Today, I am continuing my explorations by examining the role of AI in the arts and the impact of the arts on AI. The exploration is based on this notebook, with 60 sources collected by NotebookLM. AI in the Arts AI has a multi-generational history in the arts, transitioning from centuries-old mechanical automatons to symbolic rule-making and eventually to deep learning-based approaches. In the following, I will go through some of the works picked out by NotebookLM. Some of them I know well, others I hadn’t heard about before. A complete list of detected works is at the end of the post. ...
Several people have asked about the story behind our name, MishMash. Some also wonder whether it is an acronym for something. It is not; we are thinking about it as a descriptive part of our full centre name: “MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity”. I can reveal that the name has been heavily discussed in our consortium from the beginning of our application process. If I recall correctly, it first appeared during a conversation with my colleague Ragnhild Brøvig in late April last year. We had to submit a sketch of our application ideas to the Faculty of Humanities and had to come up with a title. Our thoughts were scattered, and we still did not have a clear idea of how to structure things; it all felt like a “mishmash”. We kept it as a working title and even included it in the sketch we submitted to the Research Council of Norway in June last year. ...
Yesterday, we learned that MishMash has been funded. Many people are asking about our plans, so here is a quick overview based on those outlined in the application. What? MishMash will be a large Norwegian centre dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and creativity. Our primary objective is to create, explore, and reflect on AI for, through, and in creative practices. We will investigate AI’s impact on creative processes, develop innovative CoCreative AI systems, and address AI’s ethical, cultural, and societal implications in creative domains. ...
Yesterday, I received a brief phone call from the Research Council of Norway, where I was asked to come to UiO’s University Library today. The very pleasant message was that our bid for a Norwegian AI centre had been selected by the committee: MishMash Centre for AI and Creativity will be a reality! Today’s press release was a high-profile event with both the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, and Minister of Research and Higher Education, Sigrun Aasland, present. ...
Kristina Socanski Celik touched upon the relationship between creativity and spirituality in her PhD defense earlier today. She has written a dissertation about the music of two 20th-century composers, Arvo Pärt and Ljubica Marić, who have used ancient religious chants in their modern compositions. The relationship between creativity, spirituality, and religion surfaced several times during the disputation. This was particularly because both composers have a spiritual approach to their compositions, while only one (Pärt) is religious. These discussions made me think about how spirituality relates to creativity. I have been interested in creativity for some time but have not considered its relationship to spirituality. Hence, I am writing this blog post to sort my thoughts. ...
Many researchers have requirements for publishing their articles Open Access. However, what that means in terms of licensing may be unclear to many. Two common options are CC-BY (Attribution) and CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives). Here is why you should choose CC-BY over CC-BY-NC-ND. Creative Commons licenses Creative Commons licenses are a set of public copyright licenses that enable creators to grant the public permission to use their creative works under specified conditions. These licenses provide a standardized way for authors, artists, and other creators to share their work while retaining some control over how it is used. There are many types of Creative Commons licenses, each with different combinations of permissions and restrictions. By using these licenses, creators can facilitate the free distribution and use of their work, promoting greater access to knowledge and creativity. ...
Today we submitted the proposal “MishMash - Centre for AI & Creativity” to the Research Council of Norway’s call for Norwegian AI centres. If we get funded, the goal is to create, explore, and reflect on AI for, through, and in creative practices. Preparing this proposal has been a fantastic journey. More than 100 researchers from 16 Norwegian higher education institutions, 4 research institutes, and 3 artistic research centres have partnered with the National Library, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the National Museum, and several other museums, institutions, organisations, and industry partners both within and outside of Norway. ...
I have been pondering the term “creativity” lately. Creativity is a term that “everybody” knows but nobody manages to define. Here, I will describe how I came up with my current definition of creativity as the ability to create something novel and meaningful. Defining creativity The American Psychological Association (APA) defines creativity as: the ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts. They focus on creation through (new) production or development. It is not only tangible, however, as it can also include theories or thoughts. This resonates with the definition by Cambridge Dictionary): ...