Guest editors: Peter J Bentley and Dave W Corne

A growing and exciting area of evolutionary computation is its application in creative areas such as architecture, art, music, and design. The potential of evolutionary computation in this general area is vast; there are already CD's on the market which feature saxophone solos produced by evolutionary algorithms, displays at art galleries featuring evolutionary abstract art, and structures being built according to innovative designs generated with evolutionary computation systems. There are other exciting applications of evolutionary computation for which the keywords are innovation and creativity; for example, evolving novel flight manoeuvres for combat aircraft, and evolving novel playing strategies for soccer teams. Growing out of the first international conference in this area, co-chaired by the guest editors, this special issue will bring together the most advanced work in the general use of evolutionary computation for creative results.

Papers should contain original and unpublished material, describing the use of evolutionary techniques such as genetic algorithms, genetic programming, memetic algorithms, evolutionary strategies and evolutionary programming, for the generation of innovative/creative solutions or to provide support for our own creative processes. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Creative evolutionary design, for example:
• evolution of non-routine/creative/conceptual design
• evolvable hardware
• evolutionary architecture
• evolution of novel control systems/neural networks
• evolution of novel forms/structures/robot bodies/artificial life
• Evolutionary art, for example:
• evolution of drawings, images, sculptures, animations
• evolution of dance, poetry
• Evolutionary music, for example:
• evolutionary composition
• the use of evolution for music production
• evolving simulations of voices/instruments
• Supporting human creativity, for example:
• new methods to explore solution spaces with evolution
• techniques to enhance our ideas and innovative solutions
• explorations of the impact of these techniques on people
• investigations of interfacing issues between creative evolutionary systems and people
• Theory, for example:
• defining the difference between optimization and creativity by evolution
• understanding how evolution can be creative and how these abilities can be improved
• creation of new representations and other techniques to enable innovation by evolution

Please send the paper and all correspondence via email to either guest editor at: P.Bentley@cs.ucl.ac.uk or D.W.Corne@reading.ac.uk

Submissions should follow the usual IJAI style and should be in PostScript format.

Please notify P. Bentley immediately via email of your intention to submit a paper.

Guest Editors: