Assignments

Assignment 1

Read the final project assignment below - we are going to try this out 'on paper' (the 'why' of this assignment). 

So pick a specific element of creatureness, find one or more examples of artificial creatures that express, illustrate or question this dimension. and then imagine a creature of your own. When thinking of an interesting element, don't think of artificial creatures or bots, but think about things that make us human (/animals). You will find that the more interesting qualities are those that you may not associate with bots at all, and on the flip side, no matter how 'human' or exotic the quality is , you will always find examples of related bots.

Write a short blog post with visuals (or other non textual media) using all these elements.  The goal of the blog is to tell a story about the quality through the creatures, i.o.w. use the creatures as thought provoking examples - what may we actually learn from these bots, or what do these bots tell us about the quality. 

Note there is no expectation whatsoever that it overlaps with what you will build for your final assignment - actually it will be more interesting that that will be different.

Create a subpage under your name for the assignment, with an interesting title (don't call it 'assignment 1'). Use the page with your name to provide some short bio with info on who you are, what inspires or interests you, a link to a portfolio site if you have any etc. Check the other students or last year if you are unsure about the formatting.

Assignment 2

This assignment builds on the previous one. Pick one of your fellow student assignment 1 blogs  that inspired you most. Write a short review/blog/reflection why. Of course you can have a different point of view than your fellow student, so you can expand/compare/contrast. Then come up with an idea with a hypothetical work that would be linked to this specific dimension of creatureness and provide a succinct description. You are open to choose the form of this description - it can be an imagined text from an exhibition catalogue, more of a description of what the experience would be, a visual or other 'paper prototype', provide optional details on the how, and what we could learn from the work. The rationale of this assignment is to continue on this path of 'the final project as a thought experiment', but also to practice being able to take an outside in audience point of view.

Final project

Assignment: Pick one interesting quality of creatureness (and one quality only), and construct a creature that maximizes the immediate experience of this quality with minimal technical means possible.  Optionally, this focused experience also provides further food for thought about that quality. 

If you break down this definition word by word (reread the above closely) you can see that for a good works you need to take the following into account:

• Pick a quality that is interesting, for instance avoid cliche, well covered areas such as locomotion, intelligence etc

• Focus on only one quality, narrow is better than broad

• Maximize the experience of that quality - note the projection aspect here. In principle it's geared to our experience of the work, not the work itself.

• Whilst in good works this experience is immediate, instant & memorable - and you can almost not not experience it - after that experience it should remain interesting at an intellectual level. Maybe you start to wonder what this all means, it makes a deeper point about this quality and ourselves, or it raises questions, and is multi-interpretable - we can make our own choices how to interpret the work. I.e. ideally it is thought provoking.

• The work is also self contained - you should not have to read any background on the work to have both the experience, and to make your mind wander.

• The works should be complete enough so that it can be experienced, but it doesn't need to be a polished end product - it can be prototypical as long as it can prove the point. 

• Technical complexity is typically not a plus, it is a minus. You could argue that it doesn't matter for the end goal whether the way to achieve this by the maker was complex or easy, and this course is ultimately focused on the goal, but there is beauty in simplicity. If there are elements in the work that could be stripped away without impacting the goal, do so. Analog works are definitely allowed, 'Wizard of Ozzing' also allowed. Also when using complex technology a pitfall might be that you think that using a complex method is making the concept interesting - but that would be confusing method with concept.  If you can provide the same experience or be thought provoking with less complexity it is more compelling.

You can work in groups of  up to 3 students.

Documentation requirements

• Give your work an interesting title.

• The project needs to be documented on this web site. Friday April 12 (expo day)  the website should contain (just) sufficient information so that you can present your work to the class and general public. For example if you have a movie make sure to embed it on the website. Friday April 19 (end of day) is the deadline for full online documentation.

• It should be written for a general web audience curious about the topic of artificial creatures, and what it can tell about as humans or animals (i.e. just like in the assignments the lecturer is not the audience). Do not assume a media tech, creative coding, cognitive science backgrounds etc. Whilst it will for part of the overall evaluation, write it for this general audience, not for the lecturer

• It should align with the philosophy of the exercise and the goal of the course in general

• The focus should be on the concept/experience/work first, not on how it was created.  Including media that show/demonstrate/give an idea/online version of the experience (videos for example, plus at least 1 good quality image)

• It then should include wider context, inspiration,  motivations.  What question(s) does the work pose or answer, what triggered you to make this work, why is it interesting, how is situated within science/research about the specific human qualities / what does it tell us about humans, how does it relate to other examples of research/works etc.

• Think as if you'd write it for an exhibition catalogue., say the online equivalent of 0.5-1 A4

• Each project should have 1 project page under one of the member portfolios, but the other team members should put a placeholder page under their portfolio referring to the project

So get inspired by the examples from the Lectures, previous editions (2021, 2022, 2023) or places like Bots Like You, Cybernetic Zoo and NMNT (predecessor course not specific to Artificial Creatures, 2020, previous years), pick a  quality that interests you most, research it from a human angle first, then perhaps by looking at related works from scientists and artists, find your specific focus, and then determine your concept.  

We will showcase the projects in an informal mini exhibition set up. It is important to host the works properly and continuously. Hosting is an art in itself (and also included in the overall evaluation). Let the visitors experience the work first, and then open up a discussion, for example by asking questions.