The Art of Innovation

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The Art of Innovation: Patterns of Thought

Patterns of Thought

BBC Radio 4 - The Art of Innovation, Patterns of Thought

Ian Blatchford and Tilly Blyth on computer creativity and sonic art produced by algorithms

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth focus on whether a machine can produce art without creative and emotional intentions of a human, reflected in the sonic artwork Longplayer

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth continue their series exploring how art and science have inspired each other, from the Enlightenment to Dark Matter. They examine whether the digital computer, that simply follows a series of logical steps, can produce original art without the creative and emotional intention of a human.

Ian visits Longplayer a piece of music created using an algorithm designed by ex Pogues musician Jem Finer. It will play for a millennium, without repetition, ending on December 31st 2999. The algorithm that defines Longplayer allows the music to be composed in real time according to simple rules. It’s music that plays with ideas of human and physical time

Over 100 years before the digital computer age, Ada Lovelace made a significant intellectual leap by suggesting a computing machine could be used not just for numerical expressions but to manipulate quantities other than number, such as musical notes. As Tilly reveals, it goes to the heart of questions about whether, in the future, anything as a mundane as a piece of computer code can generate music and art that’s genuinely creative without human input.

Producer  Adrian Washbourne

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group 

Photograph (C) LongPlayer Trust

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

How art and science have inspired each other.

Sir Ian Blatchford and Dr Tilly Blyth explore how art and science have inspired each other.

In this landmark series, art historian and Director of the Science Museum Ian Blatchford and technology historian and Head of Collections of the Science Museum Tilly Blyth explore the art of invention and the invention of art and reveal the symbiotic relationship between the two. Many feel science takes the magic out of creativity. These programmes show how scientific advance facilitates creativity. And further, how artistic and scientific endeavour are inspired by the same desires and, often, are the result of intimate conversations between good friends. Galileo's painter friend Ludovicio Cigoli paints a maculate moon on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and what does Galileo see when he looks through his telescope? A maculate moon. The poet Samuel Coleridge and the chemist Humphrey Davy were very close friends. Scientific innovators are creative thinkers. And the creation of art is dependent on technological development, as well as an aesthetic sense. Throughout history, artists and scientists have both desired to make sense of the world around them and change it, 

Produced in partnership with The Science Museum Group. 

Image credit: Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum.

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