Transcript: Code: Emergence, Art and Literature

This Art + Tech Lab Conversation considers the role of code and systems in art practice. Early twentieth century artists experimented with dice and mechanical approaches to randomness and chance operations; tonight’s guests draw on conditional software and code to explore the properties of emergence and generative systems in literature and art.

Andrew Max Maxwell manages machine learning and behavior modeling initiatives at Google. He is also the founding director for the Poetic Research Bureau, a poet, and a LACMA Art + Technology Lab advisor. Casey Reas writes software to explore conditional systems as art through defining emergent networks and layered instructions. He is a professor at UCLA’s Design Media Arts Program.