Can't rememberr if this has already been mentioned here. Anyway here are more details than you could ever think necessary.
> Centre for Arts Research, Technology and Education > > presents > > A pan-disciplinary conference that brings together key international > figures from the fields of computing science, psychology, > communication theory and fine art; > > > PASSIONATE MACHINES > > The art and science of emotional computing > > Saturday 1st Feb 2003 > > 9am to 5.30pm > > Hogg Lecture Theatre University of Westminster 35 Marylebone Road > London NW1 > > Nearest tube station - Baker Street > > Conference programme > > Speakers and topics: > > Professor Janet Murray �Love and Ludicism: The Emotional Power of > Electronic Games� > > Dr Dylan Evans �Scientific interest in the emotions: a renaissance� > > Kenneth Rinaldo �Laughing and weeping machines� > > Dr Sarah Kember �Narratives of Emotion� > > Steve Grand with Lucy the robot baby orang-utan �Machines like us� > > 20 791 5000 Ext 2675 Technologies of mood For much of the twentieth > century, research in the emotions was confined to a few psychologists > and even fewer anthropologists. In the past decade, however, things > have changed dramatically. Computer scientists are attempting to > build emotional machines, neuroscientists and researchers in robotics > and artificial intelligence and robotics are redefining this area. > Emotion is now a hot topic. > > Passionate Machines will explore the cross-sections of contemporary > art and research in artificial life, robotics, cognitive psychology > and gaming. At what point do we say that machines or intelligent > systems have emotion? What will it mean to interact with them? > > Experience of arts and science Janet Murray will examine some of the > core emotional features of gaming in electronic environments, > exploring what play is and why we enjoy it. She will reflect on > controversial and best-selling narrative games such as The Sims, > Grand Theft Auto, and Tetris. > > Dylan Evans will focus on the most recent discipline to have entered > the debate on emotion - artificial intelligence. Will we succeed in > building robots that feel just like we do? What reason is there for > attempting such a project? And what might be the consequences of > success? > > Kenneth Rinaldo�s interdisciplinary media art installations look to > the intersection between natural and technological systems. He is > fascinated and encouraged with human-kind�s struggle to evolve > technological systems that move toward intelligence and autonomy, but > are modelled on our current conceptions of what is �natural�. His > works are devised as emergent systems, exploring the confluence and > co-evolution of organic ad technological cultures. > > Sarah Kember believes that attempts to grow consciousness, > intelligence, thought and emotion have changed the stories we tell > about ourselves and about what it means to be human, or indeed, > post-human. She examines the dialogue between science and fiction and > narratives about humans and machines and critically evaluates > characters such as David from Supertoys Last All Summer Long to ask > if they signify the failure of Artificial Life just as Hal in 2001: A > Space Odyssey has been said to signify the failure of Artificial > Intelligence. > > Steve Grand believes that the question "can machines feel?" is > ancillary to the question "are we machines?" His way of making sense > of these questions is to try to build a machine like us - something > that really *is* like us at a deep level. With Lucy, a robot baby > orang-utan, he has begun his exploration. > > Passionate Machines is organised by The Centre for Arts Research, > Technology and Education (CARTE) at the University of Westminster. > CARTE is an inter-disciplinary and collaborative research centre > where Visual Culture is explored by theoreticians and practitioners > working across a variety of media and disciplines. > > > > > Conference Speakers > > Professor Janet H. Murray Director, Media and Visual Arts, Georgia > Tech. An internationally recognised interactive designer, the > director of Georgia Tech's graduate program in Information Design and > Technology, and of the Laboratory for Advanced Computing Initiatives, > and a member of Georgia Tech's interdisciplinary GVU Center. Her > book, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace > (Free Press, 1997; MIT Press, 1998) is widely used as a roadmap to > the coming broadband art, information, and entertainment > environments. In spring 2000 she was named a Trustee of the American > Film Institute, where she also participates as a mentor in the > Enhanced TV Workshop. She is currently working on a textbook for MIT > Press, Inventing the Medium: A Principled Approach to Interactive > Design. She holds a PhD in English from Harvard University. Before > joining Georgia Tech in 1999 she led advanced interactive design > projects at MIT. > > Dr Dylan Evans Head of Evolutionary Robotics at Bath University. The > author of five books, including Emotion: The Science of Sentiment > (OUP, 2001) and Placebo: The Belief Effect (Harper Collins, 2003), he > also contributes regularly to The Guardian. He received his PhD in > philosophy from the London School of Economics in 2000, and was a > postdoctoral research fellow in the Philosophy Department at King's > College London before moving to Bath. His current interests include > the use of computers and robots to model evolutionary processes. > > Ken Rinaldo Artist and Director of the Art and Technology program in > the Department of Art at The Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio. > An artist and theorist whose interdisciplinary media art > installations are influenced by theories on living systems, > artificial life, interspecies communication and the underlying > pattern and beauty inherent in the nature and organization of matter, > energy, and information. He won first prize for Avida 3.0 Artificial > life Art prize in 2000 for Autopoiesis - fifteen robotic sound > sculptures that inter-act with the public and modify their behaviours > over time. The robotic sculptures talk with each other through a > computer network and audible telephone tones, which are a musical > language for the group. Autopoiesis is "self making", a > characteristic of all living systems. He is Director of the Art and > Technology program in the Department of Art at The Ohio State > University in Columbus, Ohio. > > Sarah Kember Senior Lecturer, New Technologies of > Communication.Goldsmiths College. Author of Virtual Anxiety: > Photography, New Technologies and Subjectivity: The Critical Image > (Manchester University Press, 1998). Her interests are in information > and imaging technologies, especially the relation between photography > and digital imaging, and the gender studies of science and > technology, especially debates on Artificial Life and the convergence > of biology and computer science. Her most recent book is > Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life (Routledge, 2002) and takes a > critical political view of the concept of life as nformation, tracing > this through the new biology and the discourse of genomics as well as > through the changing discipline f Artificial Life and its > manifestation in art, language, literature, commerce and > entertainment. She demonstrates he ways in which Artificial Life > connects with, and connects p global networks of information and > communication systems characterised, increasingly, by claims to > autonomy, agency and evolvability. > > Steve Grand Director of Cyberlife Research Limited. Described by > Sunday Times as one of the eighteen "brains behind the twentieth > century", Steve Grand was awarded OBE in 1999 for his work as > architect and lead programmer or the artificial life game, Creatures. > He is a NESTA Fellow and honorary research fellow at both the School > of Psychology, Cardiff University and Department of Mechanical > Engineering, Bath University. He is the author of Creation: Life and > how to Make it (Harvard University Press, 2001). He is now > developing AI technology based on the self-organising structure of > the cerebral cortex. Steve Grand will introduce Lucy: a robot baby > orang-utan. Or at least, a robot with the mind of a baby, who looks > vaguely like an orang-utan. Passionate Machines the art and science > of emotional computing > > Booking form > > Name: ����������������������������.. > > Address: ����������������������������.. > ����������������������������.. Daytime Tel: > ����������������������������.. > > Email: ����������������������������.. > > I wish to book place/s > > Individual Fee �45 > > Institutional Fee �80 > > Student/Concessions �25 (proof required at registration) > > Payment Details > > I enclose a cheque for a total of ������.. > > Please make cheques payable to �University of Westminster� with the > reference "CARTE" on the back of the cheque. > > I wish to pay by debit / credit card: > > VISA / Mastercard / American Express > > I authorise the amount of � �����. to be debited from my card > > Name on Card > > Card number > > Expiry date Issue number (if paying by Switch) > > Signature ������������������. > > Please return payment(s) with this booking form to: > > Passionate Machines, CARTE, University of Westminster, 70 Great > Portland Street, London W1W 7NQ > > Fee includes refreshments and buffet lunch. Please indicate any > special dietary requirements here: > > ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] archive: http://www.mediascot.org/ambit info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
