Computer Art: Artificial Intelligence and the Arts

The author briefly reviews the recent development of Computer Art. He considers some of the aesthetic issues raised, including play with human control/noncontrol, interest in sets of possibilities rather than any particular manifestation, the blurring of the distinction between object and process and the reduction of the barrier between computer artists and viewers of their works. Future trends for Computer Art are considered, in particular the artificial intelligence (Al) potentialities of computers for processing information in a way related to that done by humans. An example from the author’s interactive computer video piece illustrates one of these potentialities.