Thursday Club Autumn Term 2008: Murray McKeich: Computational Creativity :: September 25, 2008; 6 -8 pm :: Seminar Rooms, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, South East London.

Murray McKeich is a New Zealander currently resident in Melbourne Australia who has established himself as a leading practitioner of digital media in Australasian contemporary art. Working with digital photo-media, his exhibition projects include printed imagery and animation. Described as both macabre and darkly seductive, Mckeich’s art weaves visions of surreal fantasy and magic from the tiny pieces of every-day debris found in urban and domestic environments. His recent practice uses generative software to autonomously breed art-works.

McKeich believes that computational tools are about to become more intimately integrated with human creativity. Artists and designers will take on the role of creative directors while their personalised software will work for them in the capacity of highly trained, trusted and autonomous studio assistants, capable of producing finished artworks without direct supervision. McKeich demonstrates that this form of practice is possible with current off-the-shelf software and minimal programming skill. More difficult is the psychological challenge of breaking with culturally ingrained biological models of creative process and forming new ones that are natural and native to computational agency.

MURRAY MCKEICH is a visiting fellow in the digital studios throughout September. He is a practicing artist and course co-ordinator in media arts at RMIT University, School of Creative Media, Melbourne, Australia. He is currently completing a PhD in Art/Digital Media at Monash University, Australia.