Do Computers Understand Art?

[The Straight Story]

Do Computers Understand Art?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 25, 2009) — A team of researchers from the University of Girona and the Max Planck Institute in Germany has shown that some mathematical algorithms provide clues about the artistic style of a painting. The composition of colours or certain aesthetic measurements can already be quantified by a computer, but machines are still far from being able to interpret art in the way that people do.

How does one place an artwork in a particular artistic period? This is the question raised by scientists from the Laboratory of Graphics and Image in the University of Girona and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Germany. The researchers have shown that certain artificial vision algorithms mean a computer can be programmed to "understand" an image and differentiate between artistic styles based on low-level pictorial information. Human classification strategies, however, include medium and high-level concepts.

Low-level pictorial information encompasses aspects such as brush thickness, the type of material and the composition of the palette of colours. Medium-level information differentiates between certain objects and scenes appearing in a picture, as well as the type of painting (landscape, portrait, still life, etc.). High-level information takes into account the historical context and knowledge of the artists and artistic trends.

"It will never be possible to precisely determine mathematically an artistic period nor to measure the human response to a work of art, but we can look for trends," said Miquel Feixas, one of the authors of the study, published in the journal Computers and Graphics.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091223094738.htm

Misuse of the word 'understand' IMHO in the headline, but interesting article overall.

[old mark]

1. Very interesting. As an artist, I am thinking that the humans who programmed

the computer to "understand" art don't understand art much themselves. A lot of humans don't, especially those who rely on rules and "aesthetic measurements" to determine the "validity" and "quality" of art. I have really had more than enough of people judging art - I no longer display or sell any of my work in galleries for that reason - and I am thankful I don't depend on my art for income so I don't have to make concessions to commerciality or "artistic trends" mentioned in the article.
Great post - thanks.
Rec.

In the end, the short answer is NO!


mark