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a direction towards sometimes 200 miles distant
home (humans rarely can do it without a GPS ap-
plication or a cell phone). According to researchers
from the National Park Service, animals can use
mental maps, starlings orient themselves using
the sun, Mallard ducks can find north using the
stars, migratory birds, salamanders, salmon, or
hamsters use the geomagnetic field for orientation,
loggerhead turtles' hatchlings sense the direction
and strength of Earth's magnetic field, while the
subterranean Zambian mole rats have nerve cells
that enable them to process magnetic information
(No author, Migration basics, 2012). We are able
to explain some other questions, for example, why
ducks, seagulls, and other water birds can spend
winter nights on ice in sub-zero temperature, and
also we are able to design devices based on a similar
principle of a counter-current heat exchange that
distribute heat economically in machines cooled
by water. According to a naturalist Tom Pelletier
(2011), “It's all about heat exchange, and the
smaller the temperature difference between two
objects, the more slowly heat will be exchanged.
Ducks, as well as many other birds, have a counter-
current heat exchange system between the arteries
and veins in their legs. Warm arterial blood flow-
ing to the feet passes close to cold venous blood
returning from the feet. The arterial blood warms
up the venous blood, dropping in temperature as
it does so. This means that the blood that flows
through the feet is relatively cool. This keeps the
feet supplied with just enough blood to provide tis-
sues with food and oxygen, and just warm enough
to avoid frostbite. But by limiting the temperature
difference between the feet and the ice, heat loss
is greatly reduced.”
grams, and developing new software applications
for art creating and art education. These initiatives
include, among other initiatives, establishing an
International Journal of Creative Interfaces and
Computer Graphics IJCICG (an official publica-
tion of the Information Resources Management
Association), IGI Global, Digital Creativity
journal that has been published for 21 years, and
Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for
the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, MIT Press. A
few topics such as “Visual Complexity: Mapping
Patterns of Information” by Manuel Lima (2011)
and “Digital Creativity: A Reader” by Beardon
& Malmborg (2010) analyzed digital media with
this respect.
New, often interdisciplinary programs are
being established at several universities, such as
dual majors in Computer Science and Informa-
tion Science, Creative Applications programs,
or dual majors programs of CS with the arts that
offer Game Design, Interactive Media, Music
Technology, and Digital Art. Teaching methods
apply the theory and practice of art to computing
and problem solving and encourage students to
express equations as pictures or stories. Aesthetic
computing is a curricula-blending approach that
applies the theory and practice of art to computing
and problem solving (Shreve, 2010).
Responses to the current demands comprise
also conferences, such as the 2005 Art+Math=X -
a Special Year in Mathematics and Art Conference
at the Department of Mathematics, CU Boulder,
2005, international annual conferences of Bridges:
Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and
Science created in 1998 and ongoing, or Joint
Mathematical Association annual meetings with
Mathematical Art Shows and performances.
INITIATIVES TAKEN TO ADVANCE
DIGITAL CREATIVITY
TECHNOLOGICAL OFFERINGS
SERVING A CREATIVE PROCESS
We can notice several actions responding to the
emerging questions and needs, such as establishing
new journals, opening new academic degree pro-
Several factors cause that an artist needs now a
substantial knowledge of computer technology,
