Can Computers be Programmed to Appreciate Art?

The basic arguments of this paper are that art is not intrinsically mysterious and that there is no reason why art should not serve various functions for computers as well as for human beings. Asking what such functions might be for computers leads to an examination of the functions of art for humans from a new perspective. The author suggests that artworks are like computer programs and observers of artworks must develop compilers in their brains to decode them (music, however, may be said to be in machine code in certain of its aspects, that is, already decoded). One function of art is then to provide observers with practice in constructing de-coding compilers. Other functions of art are also suggested. It is further argued that more attention should be paid to semantic features of representational visual art and that from this point of view such an artwork can be regarded as a program that incorporates a model. Compiling here involves two processes: (1) reconstructing reality from a model and (2) inferring an underlying general theoretical construct that it exemplifies.