Slideshow Precedes “Creativity, Cognition and Computers” this Sunday

Reception follows Crossroads’ afternoon Lecture

The Orcas Crossroads Lecture Series begins its season of distinguished and interesting lectures, about timely topics of both local and global interest this Sunday with Professor Harold Cohen.

An internationally known painter (with paintings in the Tate), Cohen has devoted over 30 years of his career to developing a computer program, named AARON, to create new and interesting art. AARON is the first computer program in human history to paint original art.

Cohen was introduced to computers in 1968 and almost immediately began researching autonomous machine intelligence for making art.  His celebrated AARON program was first developed in Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1973. Cohen wants to use the program as a vehicle for understanding his own creative processes and for understanding the nature of interesting, evocative visual art.  He has written extensively on this subject, and on Sunday will present the lecture “Creativity, Cognition and Computers.”

“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 said.

At 1:45 p.m. this Sunday, at Orcas Center, a slide show of AARON’s art precedes the 2 p.m. lecture. A Q&A period and a reception with the speaker will follow.

Tickets are available for $10 at the Orcas Island Library and Darvill’s Bookstore, and at the door pending availability.  Season tickets ($50 for the season of 7 lectures) may also be purchased online at www.orcascrossroads.org.

Note:  People with season tickets are guaranteed admission to all lectures by other speakers in the series, including Louis E. Wolcher (Justice), Gloria Flora (Depletion and Sustainability), Ned Brines (The Economy), Simon Winchester (China), David M. Kennedy (America as Empire) and Andrew Wilder (Afghanistan).
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The 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.