From Fingers to Digits: An Artificial Aesthetic pdf

Margaret Boden OBE FBA (born 26 November 1936) is a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and cognitive and computer science.  
Early life and education :
Boden was educated at the City of London School for Girls in the late 1940s and 1950s. At Newnham College, Cambridge, she took first class honours in medical sciences, achieving the highest score across all Natural Sciences. In 1957 she studied the history of modern philosophy at the Cambridge Language Research Unit run by Margaret Masterman.
Career :
Boden was appointed lecturer in philosophy at the University of Birmingham in 1959. She became a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University from 1962 to 1964, then returned to Birmingham for a year before moving to a lectureship in philosophy and psychology at Sussex University in 1965, where she was later appointed as Reader then Professor in 1980.She was awarded a PhD in social psychology (specialism: cognitive studies) by Harvard in 1968.
She credits reading "Plans and the Structure of Behavior" by George A. Miller with giving her the realisation that computer programming approaches could be applied to the whole of psychology.
Boden became Dean of the School of Social Sciences in 1985. Two years later she became the founding Dean of the University of Sussex's School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (COGS), precursor of the university's current Department of Informatics. Since 1997 she has been a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics, where her work encompasses the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and cognitive and computer science.
Boden became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1983 and served as its vice-president from 1989 to 1991. Boden is a member of the editorial board for The Rutherford Journal.
In 2001 Boden was appointed an OBE for her services in the field of cognitive science.The same year she was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Sussex.She also received an honorary degree from the University of Bristol.A PhD Scholarship that is awarded annually by the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex was named in her honor.

From Fingers to Digits: An Artificial Aesthetic pdf by Margaret Boden

This book is about computer art and its relations to art of a more traditional kind. Specifically, the book focuses on generative art, in its various forms, but particularly on art for which the artists use programming, computer code, as a significant element of their work. We also deal with the context of such art, so some chapters consider much of what is often called digital art, but the focus remains on the generative. Much has been written about digital art in general, and we do not repeat what is easily read elsewhere except when understanding the context requires it. At the core of computingis software—computer programming and code. Perhaps rather strangely, the role of code in computer art has received relatively little attention; hence it is our primary focus. We aim to highlight important continuities as well as the many exciting differences. A wide range of questions is discussed, for the book is a collection of chapters—most newly written for this volume—by authors with different backgrounds. Margaret Boden is a philosopher, with a special interest in creativity and in how concepts drawn from artificial intelligence (AI) can help us understand it. Ernest Edmonds is a pioneering computer artist and a professional computer scientist. Although each chapter can stand alone, they are unified by the authors’ shared interest in the history and philosophy of computer art.
In preparing the book we interviewed a range of artists and curators and had more informal conversations with many people engaged in the art world, most with a specific interest in computing. Perhaps it is not surprising that we have found significant differences among generations.

Contents
Series Foreword
I
1 _Introduction
II
2_ A Taxonomy of Computer Art
3_ Explaining the Ineffable
4_ Art Appreciation and Creative Skills
5_ Can Evolutionary Art Provide Radical Novelty?
6_ Collingwood, Emotion, and Computer Art
7 _The Gothic and Computer Art
III
8_ Computer Art and the Art World
9_ Formal Ways of Making Art: Code as an Answer to a
Dream
10_ Programming as Art
11_ Diversities of Interaction
12 _Correspondences: Uniting Image and Sound
13 _Diversities of Engagement
IV
14 _Conversations with Computer Artists