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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).
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.
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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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