Crossroads Lectures Presents Computers, Cognition & Creativity in the Visual Arts

A lecture event with internationally acclaimed artist Harold Cohen, who is also the originator of the computer program AARON, will open the Orcas Crossroads Lecture Series on Sunday, September 26, at 2 p.m. at the Orcas Center.

The title of the lecture event is Computers, Cognition and Creativity in the Visual Arts. Harold Cohen was an acclaimed London-based visual artist when he discovered computers in 1968, as a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego.  He never returned to London; instead he began researching autonomous machine intelligence for making art.  Cohen’s  celebrated AARON program was first developed in Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1973.

“I wrote (AARON) to discover what an independent machine intelligence might do, given some knowledge of the world and some rudimentary physical capabilities.  And, in the process, to have IT teach ME about possibilities I hadn’t imagined,” Cohen says.

Artist and Professor Cohen will present a lecture about the relationships between cognition, creativity and computers, then participate in a question-and-answer period with the audience and join attendees for a public reception in the Madrona Room at the Orcas Center on September 26.  All costs are included in the $10 ticket price, and tickets are available at Orcas Island Public Library, Darvill’s Bookstore , or online at www.orcascrossroads.org.

Attendees are advised to arrive early for this lecture, as a slide show of AARON’s art will begin at 1:45.

Additional lectures in this year’s Crossroads series include: Luis Wolcher, on October 10 at 2 p.m. with The Meaning of Justice in the World Today; nationally recognized ecosystem manager Gloria Flora on November 19 with From Depletion to Sustainability; Ned Brines, one of the country’s top fund managers, on The Economy:  How Are We Going to Get out of this Mess? on March 11;  Renowned author, broadcaster, journalist and traveler Simon Winchester on April 3 with The Man Who Loved China; Stanford History Professor David M. Kennedy on May 1 with A Tale of Three Cities: How the U.S. Won WWII and Created the World We Have Lived in Ever After and Andrew Wilder, Research Director of the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, with Afghanistan: Understanding the Relationship between Aid and Security” on May 22.

The Orcas Crossroads Lecture Series is supported by the Crossroads Associates Circle, the Friends of the Orcas Island Library in cooperation with the Orcas Island Public Library, the Daniel and Margaret carper Foundation, the Orcas Center and individual contributors.  It is also supported in part by a grant from Humanities Washington, a statewide organization dedicated to providing and supporting cultural education programs in local communities.