Computers are increasingly taking on the role of a creator—making content for games, participating on twitter, generating paintings and sculptures. These computationally creative systems embody formal models of both the product they are creating and the process they follow. Like that of their human counterparts, the work of algorithmic artists is open to criticism and interpretation, but such analysis requires a framework for discussing the politics embedded in procedural systems. In this talk, I will examine the politics that are (typically implicitly) represented in computational models for creativity, and discuss the possibility for incorporating feminist perspectives into their underlying algorithmic design.

1. can computers be feminist?
procedural politics and computational creativity
Gillian Smith
Northeastern University
e: gi.smith@neu.edu
t: @gillianmsmith

2. agenda
➤ what is my background?
➤ intro to computational creativity and games
➤ building computational models
➤ considerations for procedural politics
➤ towards feminist computational models

3. about me
➤ Assistant Professor, Northeastern
University
➤ Playable Innovative Technologies
➤ Art+Design, Computer Science
➤ Research in…
➤ computational creativity
➤ experimental game design

4. computational creativity
designing software that (semi-)autonomously creates art
hoopla
collaboration
viv

5. game design
creating new kinds of playable experiences
eBee
threadsteading
GrACE

6. building
formal
models
artificial creativity
game systems

7. computational creativity and formal modeling
➤ specification of desirable content, attained via:
➤ underlying data
➤ algorithmic structure
➤ art as expression of societal values
➤ notions of human creativity
➤ embedded meaning
➤ novelty and value
➤ historical, cultural context

8. knowledge representation
what kind of data and at what level of granularity
@thetinygallery (emma winston)
spelunky (derek yu)
mad libs

9. algorithm design
capturing the (human?) creative process
@DeepForger (alex champandard)
refraction (adam smith et al.)
a rogue dream (mike cook)

10. nature of the artifact
formal theory of space of all potential pieces
plotto (william wallace cook) baldur’s gate (black isle)
launchpad (gillian smith et al.)

11. games and formal modeling
➤ playable formal models
➤ designer specifies data, rules
➤ system dynamics + player introduces emergence
➤ specification of:
➤ structure of people and society
➤ social interaction
➤ additional domains…

12. game design
expressing social and political behavior as playable systems
prom week (mccoy et al.)
mass effect 3 (bioware)
alice and kev (robin burkinshaw)

13. commitments
➤ code
➤ data
➤ framing

14. procedural
politics
a framework

15. “The moral values we treasure are
reflected in the beauty and truth that is
emotionally transmitted through the
arts. The arts say something about us
to future generations.
Ann P. Kahn

16. what’s in a name?
➤ phenomenon of creative AI
systems with feminine names
➤ ELIZA
➤ ANGELINA
➤ DARCI
➤ Viv
➤ Siri…
➤ what is the assumed
competence?
➤ how is their role traditionally
gendered?

17. complexity of authorship and labor
➤ entwined relationships
➤ additional stakeholders?
➤ who receives credit?
➤ who avoids blame?
➤ who is paid?
➤ whose work is alleviated?
➤ whose work is enabled?
developer
software
player/user
creates generative model
reflects on output
synthesizes input
generates novelty
creates retellings
curates artifacts
shares to community

18. embedded biases
➤ generative systems produce a
specification of sample
artifacts
➤ explicit
➤ implicit
➤ what are the constituent parts?
➤ what are the probabilities
they’ll be chosen? seen?
➤ how is information organized?
www.icongenerators.net

19. cultural knowledge
➤ human creatives act within
their own cultural context
➤ software alternatives
➤ crowdsourcing
➤ “expert” system
➤ what is ground truth?
➤ what is subjective truth?
➤ how is it contextualized?

20. rationality and logic
➤ Adam’s critique of “universal”
logic
➤ do logic and rationality look
the same across cultures?
➤ notion of machine as
“unbiased”
➤ use randomness as a check on
authorial bias
Adam, A. 2005. “Knowing Subjects: AI from Feminist
Philosophy.” In Mechanical Bodies, Computations Minds:
Artificial Intelligence from Automata to Cyborgs, edited by
Stefano Franchi, and Güven Güzeldere., 327–344.
Cambridge: MIT Press.

21. towards
feminist
formal
models
a set of provocations

22. “I ask what it might mean to design—
from their very conception—digital
tools and applications that emerge
from the concerns of cultural theory
and, in particular, from a feminist
concern of difference.
-Tara McPherson,
“Designing for Difference”

23. Courtney Toder, work-in-progress
software should support richer identity models

24. we need to enable more diverse authors

25. need to surface bias implicit in algorithms and data

26. content filtering is insufficient

27. we escape culpability because software is “rational”

28. the fundamental flaw of big data is a lack of empathy

29. with thanks to…
➤ Amanda Phillips, Georgetown University
➤ Mike Cook, Falmouth University
➤ Tanya Short, Kitfox Games
➤ Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris, New York University
➤ Vi Hart, eleVR
➤ Marc ten Bosch, independent game developer
➤ Schloss Dagstuhl
➤ Banff International Research Station
Gillian Smith
Northeastern University
e: gi.smith@neu.edu
t: @gillianmsmith