[vslist] Mathematical and Computational Aesthetics

[James Johnson]

Those interested in the mathematical and computational
foundations of aesthetics should look at the web-site
of the International Society for Mathematical and
Computational Aesthetics.

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mleyton/ISMA.htm

James Johnson




        IS-MCA
      International Society for
      MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL AESTHETICS




            Society President: Michael Leyton (USA)

            Governing Board:  Jan Beran (Germany), Corey Cerovsek (USA),
John Clough (USA), Thaddeus Cowan (USA), Roy Eagleson (Canada), Martin
Elvis (USA), Roberto Ferretti (France), Nathaniel Friedman (USA), John Gero
(Australia), German Golitsyn (Russia), Bill Hammel (USA), Mike Holcombe
(UK), Slavik Jablan (Jugoslavia), Oleg Kisljuk (Russia), Reinhard Kopiez
(Germany),Vladimir Koptsik (Russia), Ramesh Krishnamurti (USA), Paul Lansky
(USA),  Arthur Loeb (USA), Jeff Long (USA), Christopher Longuet-Higgins
(UK), Guerino Mazzola (Switzerland), Denes Nagy (Japan), Thomas Noll
(Germany), Jean Petitot (France), Vladimir Petrov (Russia), Roland Posner
(Germany), Galina Riznichencko (Russia), Dan Rockmore (USA), Ed Rothstein
(USA), Reza Sarhangi (USA), Daniel Schodek (USA), Charles Schmidt (USA),
Barry Smith (USA), Vera W. de Spinadel (Argentina), George Stiny (USA),
Alexander Voloshinov (Russia), Dorothy Washburn (USA),Yasunari Watanabe
(Japan), Robert Wechsler (Germany), Lebbeus Woods (USA).


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            The computational analysis of design is now a enormous
discipline involving the interaction of high-level mathematics with
advanced programming technologies. All design attempts to satisfy two
constraints: functionality and aesthetics. Even a discipline as
functionally oriented as structural engineering, in fact, involves
aesthetic control over systems of non-linear equations. Aesthetics allows
for (1) productive unification of perception, reasoning, and action, (2)
understandability despite complexity, (3) generalization and re-usability,
(4) axiomatic economy and principled prediction. Aesthetics is a major
force in each of the following areas:

            Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, Robot Motion Design:
There has been considerable convergence in mathematics across the different
types of CAD (e.g., in architecture and mechanical design), as well as
manufacturing by shape-sculpting technology, and robot motion design. We
note that Frank Gehry's Guggenheim museum at Bilbao was possible because
James Glymph imported into architecture a major program designed by the
French for aerospace engineering. The reason for the converging unity is
that each of the several disciplines involves analysis of spatial systems
of movement, control, and shape deformation - whose natural description is
Lie algebras, tensor geometry with exterior differential calculus, and
algebraic geometry.

            Analysis of Artistic Masterpieces.  Remarkable advances have
been made in the mathematical and computational analysis of major artistic
masterpieces - from the chorales of Bach, the piano sonatas of Beethoven,
to the paintings of Picasso and Raphael, etc. Again, these analyses mainly
involve Lie groups, Lie algebras, algebraic and differential geometry.

            Scientific Theory-Building and Reasoning: It has been
well-recognized that aesthetic criteria play a powerful role in determining
the design of theoretical models (e.g., irreducible representations of
compact Lie algebras predicted the particle systems of quantum mechanics),
as well as the dynamic equations of physics (e.g., Paul Dirac declared that
the design of his relativistic electron equation was determined primarily
by aesthetic criteria). The problem of insight in theory-building,
problem-solving, and reasoning generally has been tackled with significant
advances in AI - particularly in the problem-reformulation community, which
is based strongly on the aesthetic supervision of discrete algebraic
systems.

            Software Design: It is clear that aesthetic criteria play a
major role in determining software cohesion and decomposition, e.g., module
decomposition in structured programming, object decomposition in
object-oriented technology. Furthermore, it is apparent that there has been
a remarkable interaction between the design of software and the software of
design - and that this self-referring advance is driven by the need for
aesthetic structuring of systems of computational operations.

            The International Society for Mathematical and Computational
Aesthetics is concerned with any design object, whether it be the
machine-sculpted surface of a car body, the Beethoven Hammerklavier sonata,
the Feynman propagator in quantum electrodynamics, or re-usable software.
We are concerned with advanced research in four directions: (1) how the
design decision-flow is controlled by aesthetics; (2) what structural
aspects of a design object are taken to be aesthetic; (3) how aesthetic
value is computed by the designer and user; and (4) how aesthetics is
integrated with function in the design object.

            The board members of this society are internationally known for
their extensive and highly-developed research on these issues. This
research includes, for example, analysis of large-scale integration in
aircraft design; comprehensive analyses of symphonies and paintings;
grammars for design (e.g., in architecture, structural engineering,
computer programming, manufacturing); classification systems for ethnic
artifacts; problem reformulation in AI; aesthetically powerful models in
astrophysics; systematizations of mathematical crystallography and their
application to design; cohomological unification in quantum mechanics, etc.


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            The society is a division of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR
GROUP THEORY IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mleyton/GT.htm. For more information contact:
Professor Michael Leyton, Center for Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical
Computer Science (DIMACS), Rutgers University: mleyton@dimacs.rutgers.edu

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