History of Computer Art

A large text presents the history of Computer Art. The history of the artistic uses of computers and computing processes is reconstructed from its beginnings in the fifties to its present state. It points out hypertextual, modular and generative modes to use computing processes in Computer Art and features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, video tools, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, pervasive games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than is usual in such histories. From October 2011 to December 2012 the chapters have been published successively in German (The English translation started in August 2013 and was completed in June 2014)

Considerations in designing a cybernetic simple 'learning' model; and an overview of the problem of modelling learning

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Learning is viewed as a central feature of living systems and must be manifested in any artifact that claims to exhibit general intelligence. The central aims of the thesis are twofold: (1) - To review and critically assess the empirical and theoretical aspects of learning as have been addressed in a multitude of disciplines, with the aim of extracting fundamental features and elements. (2) - To develop a more systematic approach to the cybernetic modelling of learning than has been achieved hitherto. In pursuit of aim (1) above the following discussions are included: Historical and Philosophical backgrounds; Natural learning, both physiological and psychological aspects; Hierarchies of learning identified in the evolutionary, functional and developmental senses; An extensive section on the general problem of modelling of learning and the formal tools, is included as a link between aims (1) and (2). Following this a systematic and historically oriented study of cybernetic and other related approaches to the problem of modelling of learning is presented. This then leads to the development of a state-of-the-art general purpose experimental cybernetic learning model. The programming and use of this model is also fully described, including an elaborate scheme for the manifestation of simple learning

Mediated Cognition: Information Technologies and the Sciences of Mind

This dissertation investigates the interconnections between minds, media, and the cognitive sciences. It asks what it means for media to have effects upon the mind: do our tools influence the ways that we think? It considers what scientific evidence can be brought to bear on the question: how can we know and measure these effects? Ultimately, it looks to the looping pathways by which science employs technological media in understanding the mind, and the public comes to understand and respond to these scientific discourses. I contend that like human cognition itself, the enterprise of cognitive science is a deeply and distinctively mediated phenomenon. This casts a different light on contemporary debates about whether television, computers, or the Internet are changing our brains, for better or for worse. Rather than imagining media effects as befalling a fictive natural mind, I draw on multiple disciplines to situate mind and the sciences thereof as shaped from their origins through interaction with technology. Our task is then to interrogate the forms of cognition and attention fostered by different media, alongside their attendant costs and benefits. The first chapter positions this dissertation between the fields of media studies and STS, developing a case for the reality of media effects without the implication of technological determinism. The second considers the history of technological metaphor in scientific characterizations of the mind. The third section consists of three separate chapters on the history of cognitive science, presenting the core of my case for its uniquely mediated character. Across three distinct eras, what unifies cognitive science is the quest to understand the mind using computational systems, operating by turns as generative metaphors and tangible models. I then evaluate the contemporary cognitive-scientific research on the question of media effects, and the growing role of electronic media in science. My fifth and final section develops a content analysis: what is said in the media about the popular theory that media themselves, in one way or another, are causing attention deficit disorders? The work concludes with a summary and some reflections on mind, culture, technoscience and markets as recursively interwoven causal systems

Collaborating with the Behaving Machine: simple adaptive dynamical systems for generative and interactive music

Situated at the intersection of interactive computer music and generative art, this thesis is inspired by research in Artificial Life and Autonomous Robotics and applies some of the principles and methods of these fields in a practical music context. As such the project points toward a paradigm for computer music research and performance which comple- ments current mainstream approaches and develops upon existing creative applications of Artificial Life research. Many artists have adopted engineering techniques from the field of Artificial Life research as they seem to support a richer interactive experience with computers than is often achieved in digital interactive art. Moreover, the low level aspects of life which the research programme aims to model are often evident in these artistic appropriations in the form of bizarre and abstract but curiously familiar digital forms that somehow, despite their silicon make-up, appear to accord with biological convention. The initial aesthetic motivation for this project was very personal and stemmed from interests in adaptive systems and improvisation and a desire to unite the two. In sim- ple terms, I wanted to invite these synthetic critters up on stage and play with them. There has been some similar research in the musical domain, but this has focused on a very small selection of specific models and techniques which have been predominantly applied as compositional tools rather than for use in live generative music. This thesis considers the advantages of the Alife approach for contemporary computer musicians and offers specific examples of simple adaptive systems as components for both compo- sitional and performance tools. These models have been implemented in a range of generative and interactive works which are described here. These include generative sound installations, interactive instal- lations and a performance system for collaborative man-machine improvisation. Public response at exhibitions and concerts suggests that the approach taken here holds much promise

Apperceptive patterning: Artefaction, extensional beliefs and cognitive scaffolding

In “Psychopower and Ordinary Madness” my ambition, as it relates to Bernard Stiegler’s recent literature, was twofold: 1) critiquing Stiegler’s work on exosomatization and artefactual posthumanism—or, more specifically, nonhumanism—to problematize approaches to media archaeology that rely upon technical exteriorization; 2) challenging how Stiegler engages with Giuseppe Longo and Francis Bailly’s conception of negative entropy. These efforts were directed by a prevalent techno-cultural qualifier: the rise of Synthetic Intelligence (including neural nets, deep learning, predictive processing and Bayesian models of cognition). This paper continues this project but first directs a critical analytic lens at the Derridean practice of the ontologization of grammatization from which Stiegler emerges while also distinguishing how metalanguages operate in relation to object-oriented environmental interaction by way of inferentialism. Stalking continental (Kapp, Simondon, Leroi-Gourhan, etc.) and analytic traditions (e.g., Carnap, Chalmers, Clark, Sutton, Novaes, etc.), we move from artefacts to AI and Predictive Processing so as to link theories related to technicity with philosophy of mind. Simultaneously drawing forth Robert Brandom’s conceptualization of the roles that commitments play in retrospectively reconstructing the social experiences that lead to our endorsement(s) of norms, we compliment this account with Reza Negarestani’s deprivatized account of intelligence while analyzing the equipollent role between language and media (both digital and analog)

Circadian and homeostatic modulation of sleep spindles in the human electroencephalogram

Sleep spindles are transient EEG oscillations of about 12-16 Hz. Together with slow waves, they hallmark the human non-REM sleep EEG. Sleep spindles originate in the thalamus and are suggested to have a sleep protective function by reducing sensory transmission to the cortex. Other evidence points to an involvement of sleep spindles in brain plasticity processes during sleep. Previous studies have shown that sleep spindles are both under homeostatic (sleep-wake dependent) and circadian (time of day-dependent) control. Furthermore, frequency-specific topographical distribution of power density within the spindle frequency range has been reported. The aim of this thesis was to assess homeostatic and circadian influences on spectral spindle frequency activity (SFA) and spindle parameters in different brain regions. Healthy young volunteers participated in both a 40-h sleep deprivation (SD) and a 40-h multiple nap paradigm. The recovery nights after the SD and the nap protocol served to assess the effect of enhanced and reduced homeostatic sleep pressure, respectively. The multiple nap paradigm revealed the modulation of sleep spindles across the circadian cycle. Two different methodological approaches were used to analyze the EEGs: classical spectral analysis (Fast Fourier Transform, FFT) and a new method for instantaneous spectral analysis (Fast Time Frequency Transform, FTFT), developed as a part of this thesis project in collaboration with Wim Martens from TEMEC, The Netherlands. Slow wave activity (SWA, spectral power density in the 0.75-4.5 Hz range) and spindle frequency activity (SFA, spectral power density in the spindle frequency range) in the high frequency range (13.75-16.5 Hz) were oppositely affected by the differential levels of sleep pressure (Chapter 2). These effects strongly depended on brain location. After SD, the SWA increase compared to the baseline night was most pronounced in the beginning of the night and in the fronto-central region. Power density in the high spindle frequency range was reduced in the centro-parietal brain region. After the nap protocol, when sleep pressure was reduced, power density in the SWA range was decreased at the beginning of the night. SFA was generally increased after the nap protocol. The data indicate that the balance between SWA and high-frequency spindle activity may represent a sensitive marker for the level of homeostatic sleep pressure. The new method of FTFT revealed that spindle density was reduced after SD (Chapter 3). This reduction was particularly apparent in the frontal derivation, and most pronounced in the first half of the night. The reduction of spindle density with its temporal and local specificity confirms the inverse homeostatic regulation of slow waves and sleep spindles. Sleep spindles had a lower frequency and a higher amplitude after SD. Within an individual spindle, frequency variability was reduced, which indicates that sleep spindles were more stable and homogenous after SD. The increase in spindle amplitude and the reduced intra-spindle frequency variability suggests a higher degree of synchronization in thalamocortical neurons under high homeostatic sleep pressure. EEGs during the nap paradigm were analyzed to compare SFA and sleep spindle characteristics during and outside the circadian phase of melatonin secretion (the “biological night” and “biological day”, respectively) (Chapter 4). In naps occurring during the phase of melatonin secretion, lower spindle frequencies were promoted, indexed as a reduction in mean spindle frequency (i.e. slowing of sleep spindles) and an increase in spindle amplitude and SFA in the low-frequency range (up to ~14.25 Hz) paralleled by a reduction in the high-frequency range (~ 14.5-16 Hz). Furthermore, spindle density was increased, and intra-spindle frequency variability reduced during the night. Thus, the circadian pacemaker is likely to promote low-frequency, high amplitude and homogenous sleep spindles during the biological night. The circadian modulation of sleep spindles may be a way by which the circadian system modulates and times sleep consolidation. This circadian modulation clearly depended on brain location such that it was maximal in the parietal and minimal in the frontal derivation. Taken together, the segregated analysis of different spindle parameters by the new high-time and high-frequency resolution spindle analysis provides new insights into sleep spindles and their regulation. Both homeostatic and circadian processes affected sleep spindles characteristics in a topography-specific manner. These statedependent local aspects provide further evidence that sleep is a dynamic phenomenon which reflects use-dependent recovery or reactivation processes

Adaptive networks for robotics and the emergence of reward anticipatory circuits

Currently the central challenge facing evolutionary robotics is to determine how best to extend the range and complexity of behaviour supported by evolved neural systems. Implicit in the work described in this thesis is the idea that this might best be achieved through devising neural circuits (tractable to evolutionary exploration) that exhibit complementary functional characteristics. We concentrate on two problem domains; locomotion and sequence learning. For locomotion we compare the use of GasNets and other adaptive networks. For sequence learning we introduce a novel connectionist model inspired by the role of dopamine in the basal ganglia (commonly interpreted as a form of reinforcement learning). This connectionist approach relies upon a new neuron model inspired by notions of energy efficient signalling. Two reward adaptive circuit variants were investigated. These were applied respectively to two learning problems; where action sequences are required to take place in a strict order, and secondly, where action sequences are robust to intermediate arbitrary states. We conclude the thesis by proposing a formal model of functional integration, encompassing locomotion and sequence learning, extending ideas proposed by W. Ross Ashby. A general model of the adaptive replicator is presented, incoporating subsystems that are tuned to continuous variation and discrete or conditional events. Comparisons are made with Ross W. Ashby's model of ultrastability and his ideas on adaptive behaviour. This model is intended to support our assertion that, GasNets (and similar networks) and reward adaptive circuits of the type presented here, are intrinsically complementary. In conclusion we present some ideas on how the co-evolution of GasNet and reward adaptive circuits might lead us to significant improvements in the synthesis of agents capable of exhibiting complex adaptive behaviour

History of Computer Art

Die Entwicklung von Computer und Software von den fünfziger Jahren bis heute wird vorgestellt. Als Leitkriterien der Geschichte der Computerkunst werden ein Interface-Modell und drei Arten, Rechenprozesse einzusetzen (generativ, modular, hyptertextuell), vorgeschlagen. Die "Geschichte der Computerkunst"/"History of Computer Art" erörtert Beispiele aus frühen Entwicklungsphasen von Kunstformen wie Kybernetische Skulpturen, Computergraphik und -animation (einschließlich Musikvideos und Demos), Videokunst und Computerspielen, reaktive Installationen, Virtuelle Realität, Evolutionäre Kunst und Netzkunst. Die Funktionen der ausgewählten Werke werden detaillierter vorgestellt als dies in vergleichbaren Geschichten üblich ist. Die deutsche Version wurde bis Dezember 2012 kapitelweise in IASLonline Lektionen/Lessons in Net Art publiziert. Das letzte Kapitel der englischen Version wurde Juni 2014 veröffentlicht. Im September 2015 wurde ein erstes Update eingestellt