Computer Programming in the Creative Arts - Computers and Creativity - page 242

Fig. 9.7 The process of
action and reaction in
bricolage programming from
Fig. 9.3 , showing the three
components of the Creative
Systems Framework, namely
search space, traversal
strategy and evaluation
(and defined by) them. The CSF supplies tests for particular kinds of aberration
from the expected conceptual space and suggests approaches to addressing them.
Again using the terminology of Gärdenfors ( 2000 ), the search spaces of the CSF
are themselves concepts, defining regions in a universal space defined by quality di-
mensions. Thus, transformational creativity is a geometrical transformation of these
regions, motivated by a process of searching through and beyond them; crucially,
the search space is not closed. As we will see, this means that a creative agent
may creatively push beyond the boundaries of the search. While acknowledging
that creative search may operate over linguistic search spaces, we focus on geo-
metric spaces grounded in perception. This follows our focus on artistic bricolage
(Sect. 9.2 ), which revolves around perception. For an approach unifying linguistic
and geometric spaces see Forth et al. ( 2010 ).
We may now clarify the bricolage programming process introduced in Sect. 9.2.1
within the CSF. As shown in Fig. 9.7 , the search space defines the programmer's
concept, being their current artistic focus structured by learnt techniques and con-
ventions. The traversal strategy is the process of attempting to generate part of the
concept by encoding it as an algorithm, which is then interpreted by the computer.
Finally, evaluation is a perceptual process in reaction to the output.
In Sect. 9.2 , we alluded to the extended mind hypothesis (Clark 2008 ), claim-
ing that bricolage programming takes part of the human creative process outside of
the mind and into the computer. 3 The above makes clear what we claim is being
externalised: part of the traversal strategy. The programmer's concept motivates a
development of the traversal strategy, encoded as a computer program, but the pro-
grammer does not necessarily have the cognitive ability to fully evaluate it. That task
is taken on by the interpreter running on a computer system, meaning that traversal
encompasses both encoding by the human and interpretation by the computer.
The traversal strategy is structured by the techniques and conventions employed
to convert concepts into operational algorithms. These may include design patterns ,
a standardised set of ways of building that have become established around many
3 See also Chap. 14 by Bown.