Introduction: Toward an Anthropology of Computational Creativity

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction: Toward an Anthropology of Computational Creativity 1
5. Part I Jazz Mimicry, Originality, Sociality
6. 1 “I Prefer Playing with It to Playing with Most People”: The Computer as a Musical Conversation Partner 33
7. 2 An Island of Interactivity in an Ocean of Nonreactivity: The Trade-Offs of a Made-to-Order Artificial Musical World 59
8. 3 “A Device That Would Generate New Musical Ideas”: The Computer as a Source of Musical Inspiration 84
9. 4 Separating Noise from Signal: The Ethnomethodological Uncanny as Aesthetic Pleasure in Human-Machine Interaction 112
10. Part II Poetry Indeterminacy, Potentiality, Intentionality
11. 5 Computer-Generated Poetry and Some of Its Aesthetic and Technical Dimensions 137
12. 6 “I Randomize, Therefore I Think”: Computational Indeterminacy and the Tensions of American Liberal Subjectivity 159
13. 7 Analog Precursors and Their Digital Logical End: The Oulipo 181
14. 8 Crosscurrents and Opposing Perspectives 196
15. Conclusion: Neither Our Doom nor Our Salvation: Open-Ended Digital Systems and Cultural Critique 219
16. Notes 227
17. References 241
18. Index 255