Creative Systems: A Biological Perspective

Abstract

A creative systems approach examines generalised processes of creativity. Looking beyond the anthropomorphic focus of traditional creativity research, creative systems encompass a broad range of generative processes, including the physical, chemical, biological and social. Looking beyond human creativity opens up the idea of creative processes occurring over timescales or dimensions outside normal human experience. This chapter examines the use of creative systems as a way to conceptualise, design and develop new kinds of creative works, particularly those that make use of computers. In particular, it looks at biological processes and illustrates how they can be abstracted, generalised and repurposed as creative algorithms. Traditional evolutionary approaches to computer creativity focus on optimisation, in that they define some criterion that allows the ranking of individuals from a population in terms of their suitability for a particular task. The problem for creative applications is that creativity is rarely thought of as finding a single optimisation. Reconceptualising the exploration of a creative space using an ‘ecosystemic’ approach, for example, can lead to more creatively rewarding possibilities.