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human intervention”, as opposed to other computational systems performing artis-
tic tasks. Artistic processes often rely on the capacity to make aesthetic judgements,
using artworks created by others as sources of inspiration and making criticism of
their own work. As Boden (
1990
) puts it: “Someone that has a new idea must be
able to evaluate it by itself”.
A major obstacle in developing constructed artists is the difficulty of implement-
ing aesthetic judgement mechanisms. Having a system capable of creating its own
aesthetic preferences, or acquiring them from a cultural environment, would be an
important step towards the development of computational creativity.
The concepts of art and aesthetics are deeply related. Nevertheless, it is important
to differentiate between them. The artistic value of an artwork depends on several
factors, including form, content, cultural context and novelty. We acknowledge the
relevance of all these factors, yet, we focus exclusively on the aesthetic properties of
the artworks, and—for the scope of this chapter—we define Aesthetics as the study
of the form in itself, i.e. stripped from content, context, and all the other factors that,
although relevant from an artistic standpoint, do not result exclusively from form
and, consequently, cannot be analysed when considering only the form.
By assuming this point of view, we are not creating a false dichotomy between
“form” and “content”. We acknowledge that these factors are not independent. Form
affects, and sometimes determines, the way content is perceived and conveyed, and
the coherence or contrast between form and content can be explored. For instance,
an artist may choose to use a composition that he finds visually pleasing and har-
monious to convey content that is highly displeasing and violent, exploring the dis-
crepancy between form and content for artistic purposes. Even when the artwork is
purely abstract, one cannot rule out the possibility that a human observer perceives,
even if only at a subconscious level, some type of content that evokes feelings and
emotions and that, therefore, influences his reaction to the piece. In other words,
it may be impossible for a human to focus exclusively on the form, which makes
the discipline of aesthetics (as defined here) an unreachable goal. Although this
constitutes an obvious drawback, it is also an opportunity: computers can focus ex-
clusively on the form.
In the same way that we differentiate between Art and Aesthetics, we also differ-
entiate between Artistic and Aesthetic Judgement. The existence of universal aes-
thetic preferences shared among all humans, the existence of shapes that are inher-
ently pleasing or displeasing, the way culture and training affect aesthetics, etc. are
controversial (even among the authors of this chapter). These questions, although
relevant, are outside the scope of what we describe here. We consider, however, that
there are properties such as symmetry, balance, rhythm, contrast, proportion, repe-
tition, unity, predominance, variety, and continuity which are aesthetically relevant
and that can be considered aesthetic principles. This does not imply that a symmetric
image is inherently more pleasing than an asymmetric one. It does, however, imply
that symmetry may influence the aesthetic value of an artwork. The way a given
aesthetic property influences aesthetics depends on a wide variety of issues, includ-
ing the relationship with other aesthetic properties, personal preferences, aesthetic
trend, and so on.
