September 12 at 4pm: Pr. Mark D’Inverno

For the third colloquium of the semester, held on September 12, 2018 (Wednesday), we will welcome Pr. Mark D’Inverno from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, who will give a talk on the topic “The Future of Creativity”

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

 Date: 12 Sep 2018 (Wednesday)

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: The Future of Creativity

Abstract:

There is a constant buzz around the word creativity. Reference to it has spread prolifically since the 1950s within and beyond academia, associated with novelty, value, imagination and innovation. What could be wrong with that?

We argue its use has become so ubiquitous across academia, marketing, politics and every -day as to mean no more than which we approve of.

So in this talk I’ll challenge the extensive and expansive use of this term and propose an alternative terminology that regains a meaning and currency for human activity that we wish to teach in universities.

So we consider “creative activity” as an alternative to “creativity”, and through the lenses of recent research and teaching innovation at Goldsmiths, look to answer the following key questions:

1. What is human creative activity?
2. What pedagogy should we use for teaching creative activity?
3. How should we reframe AI research to inspire human creative activity?

I will aim to answer these questions from the perspective of being a musician, a lecturer, and an AI researcher.

About the speaker

Professor Mark d’Inverno holds an MA in Mathematics and an MSc in Computation from the University of Oxford and a PhD from University College London entitled “Agents, Agency and Autonomy”. He has been a Professor of Computer Science at Goldsmiths for over 10 years, leading large research projects across artificial intelligence, art, music and education and published over 200 peer-reviewed articles including several books such as Computers and Creativity.

He currently holds the position of Pro-Warden International (one of the 3 Vice Presidents) at Goldsmiths, University of London and was the Pro-Warden for Research and Enterprise between 2012 and 2016. He was the Head of the Computing Department between 2007 and 2011, which pioneered interdisciplinary research and new programmes – such as Digital Arts Computing, Music Computing and Creative Computing – at the interface of technology and creative practice.

He is a critically acclaimed jazz pianist in the UK and over 30 years has led a variety of successful bands in a range of different musical genres such as the Mark d’Inverno Quintet.

About Goldsmiths

Goldsmiths is one of the world’s leading institutions for the Creative Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and is currently in the top 50 institutions in the world for a range of subjects including performing arts, art and design, media, anthropology and sociology. It has a rich heritage of producing alumni that have had a significant and lasting impact on the UK’s Creative Industries with alumni including Mary Quant, Steve McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Anthony Gormley, Adrian Sutton, James Blake and Damien Hirst.

 

September 11th at 4pm: change of date

For the second colloquium of the semester, held on September 11, 2018 (Tuesday), we will welcome researcher Dr. Franziska Bruckner who will give a talk on the topic “Stops in Motion – Animation as Meta-cinematographic Concept” 

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in M6094 Future Cinema Studio.

Date: 11 Sep 2018 (Tuesday)

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: M6094 Future Cinema Studio, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, 18 Tat Hong Avenue, Kowloon Tong

Topic: Stops in Motion – Animation as Meta-cinematographic Concept

Abstract:

Stop-motion is an animation technique, in which objects are shifted in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of photos are projected as a continuous sequence. In filmic contexts stop-motion reaches a specific potential of expression, but already includes historically grown aspects of intermediality by combining artistic spheres like photography, music, fine arts, theatre or puppetry. More comprehensive ideas of animation are featured from several theorists, such as Lev Manovich (1995), Alan Cholodenko (1991) or Suzanne Buchan (2013), which also emphasize the variety of manual, mechanical and conceptual possibilities of stop-motion beyond the medium film.

The lecture “Stops in Motion” focuses on an expanded notion of stop-motion, its potential before, in, and beyond its filmic boundaries and aims to explore a brief history of this aesthetically diverse animation technique. Beginning with precinematic devices, the lecture outlines important steps of stop-motion in film history and explores innovative prospects since its digitalization. This not only includes possibilities of established stop-motion software, but also focuses on opportunities in virtual and augmented reality applications. As stop-motion vitalizes objects in a visible fragmented way, it is an ideal concept for investigating new understandings of cinematic perception. Viewed from this perspective, stop-motion functions not anymore as a technique but as a “meta-cinematographic” concept and becomes a tool to fragment and recompose the world.

Biography:

Dr. Franziska Bruckner (Salzburg, 1981) is senior researcher and head of the research group Media Creation at the St. Poelten University of Applied Sciences. She is co-coordinator of the AG Animation within the German-speaking Society for Media Studies and board member of ASIFA Austria. From 2009 to 2013 she was a university assistant at the department of theater-, film- and media studies in Vienna. From 2013 to 2017 she worked as lecturer for animation theory and practice at the University of Vienna, University of Tuebingen and University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.

More on:

http://franziska-bruckner.com