[x] Philippe Pasquier at SFU Surrey Wednesday Jan 30, 2:30pm, room 5380

[Jim Andrews]

Below is a description by Jacob Freiberg of a talk by Philippe Pasquier 
happening this Wednesday Jan 30 at 2:30pm in room 5380 at SFU Surrey 
(http://www.surrey.sfu.ca/maps_directions ).

ja

Hey all,

This Wednesday in Colloquium we'll be joined by our very own Philippe 
Pasquier; he'll be talking about his work with Computational Creativity.

About the topic:
The ability to invent and use tools is a defining characteristic of human 
beings: from the invention of the wheel to the development of cell phones, 
technology and humans have been co-evolving. In recent years, artificial 
intelligence has been tremendously successful at endowing machines with 
autonomous and proactive behaviors to achieve tasks that normally rely on 
human intelligence. Computational creativity is a new and fast expanding 
field that attempts to simulate human creativity, and to discover creative 
processes that may go beyond human capabilities. This field brings together 
academics, and artists to design systems that are capable of making creative 
decisions. This presentation will introduce and motivate this subfield of 
Artificial Intelligence through the presentation of various projects 
realized at the Metacreation, Agents and Multiagent Systems laboratory 
directed by Prof. Philippe Pasquier.

About the speaker:
After studying computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive 
sciences in Europe, Canada and Australia, Philippe Pasquier joined Simon 
Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) in 
January 2008 as an assistant professor. Philippe Pasquier is both a 
scientist specialized in artificial intelligence and a multi-disciplinary 
artist. As an artist, he has served as a member or administrator of several 
artistic collectives (Robonom, Phylm, MIJI), art centers (Avatar, Bus 
Gallery) and artistic organizations (P: Media art, Machines, Vancouver New 
Music) in Europe, Canada and Australia. Philippe's scientific research 
focuses on the development of models and tools for endowing machines with 
autonomous, intelligent or creative behavior. His contributions ranges from 
theoretical research in artificial agent theories to applied artistic 
research in computational creativity and generative art.

His work has been shown internationally and funded and supported by more 
than 20 scientific and or cultural institutions including the Natural 
Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and 
Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) the Canadian Council for the Arts (CCA), 
the French Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, the Australian 
Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Council for the Arts (ACA).

Web:
More on Philippe: http://www.sfu.ca/pasquier/
MAMAS laboratory: http://www.metacreation.net
More on SIAT: http://www.siat.sfu.ca/

His exploration of the intersection between technology and art offers all of 
SIAT an exciting opportunity to learn more about this intriguing topic. See 
you this Wednesday at 2:30pm in room 5380.

Thanks,
Jake