Creativity and the Not-Alive: Influences on our Behavior by Robotic Creatures (Presentation at MiT5, 2007)

Human creativity is intimately bound with the objects used in the creative process. Creation, creator, and tools exist as actors in a constantly undulating assemblage, both the weight of each component and the connection between components adapting to present circumstances. What changes in our understanding of creativity, then, need to occur when one of the actors is a non-human object with at least presumed agency? What is the role of authorship when an object can act on its own? What relationship forms between the creator and his or her tools? I will describe early work with a robotic creature called syngva, designed to encourage reflective and expressive behaviors in the person interacting with it, responding through motion to vocalizations from user. Paper presented at Media in Transition 5, MIT, on 28 April, 2007. Draft Copy: Please do not cite without permission.