News & Events
AESTHETIC COMPUTING LEADS THE WAY FOR NEW INTERFACES IN MATH, COMPUTING AND SCIENCE
April 12, 2004
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- One day in 1997 as Dr. Paul Fishwick, professor in the CISE Department, was returning home on a flight, he observed the landscape, dotted with objects. "Wouldn't it be something," he thought, "if all of those objects represented equations or parts of computer programs?" And thus, the field of Aesthetic Computing was born. Aesthetic computing, a term coined by Fishwick, attempts to take the abstract world of math, equations, and formulas and put them into two-dimensional or three-dimensional representation in either digital or tangible forms to facilitate better understanding of mathematical formulas or scientific concepts.
"The fields of mathematics and computer science have always been fields that many people find difficult to understand or relate to. A key reason for this is the complexity of the interface, that is the notations used to convey the ideas in mathematics," said Fishwick. By using a more personal approach and environment, Dr. Fishwick hopes to make the subject easier to understand and possibly pave the way for entirely new interfaces. Aesthetic computing combines the field of math and art theory to produce computer or physical models made from materials such as wood, plastic or metal. These models can be a picture of, for example, the distributive law of algebra, or a Taylor's series expansion from the field of calculus. Scholars hope that these alternate forms of expression may present new ways of understanding math and science.
Some physical models, created by Fishwick's students, have been on display on the UF campus in the walkway of the Fine Arts Library. Some 11 projects have been on display, representing students' work. Student Roy Sasson, developed a model using LEGOsT to illustrate a programming structure. Two bins, two slides, and a vehicle with a pulley illustrate a particular programming structure equation. "LEGOST represent something that most of us have grown up with. They give the observer that attitude that this is "child's play", which truly makes this model a great learning tool," said Sasson.
Joey Hale produced a representation of a Petri Network, a model used to simulate network-based systems and their behaviors. Materials used included MylarT, small brads, fishing line, a pull ring, aluminum tubing, and sheets of aluminum on a wood base. "The purpose of the project was to create a teaching device that was aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at," said Hale.
But getting from an idea on an airplane to a student display took Fishwick some eight or so years. After his initial brainstorm, he was eventually able to interest and bring together a team of about 40 scholars from around the world who believed in the idea and wanted todevelope it with him. In July, 2002, the group met in Germany to form a specific Dagstuhl Conference, a one-of-a-kind workshop with the goal of developing Fishwick's idea. The Conference was co-sponsored by Leonardo, a non-profit organization for bridging the fields of the arts, science and technology. The group developed the concept of aesthetic computing and produced a manifesto. Fishwick credits this meeting and this group of scholars for propelling his idea into something more fine-tuned and workable, which he feels he could not have done on his own. "The team input definitely took the aesthetic computing idea to new heights and gave it form," says Fishwick. The proceedings of this meeting, together with thoughts and research from other scholars around the world, formed the 22 chapters for Fishwick's edited course book, which he uses in photocopy form for classes, but is scheduled for publishing by MIT Press in the spring of 2005.
Fishwick has been teaching Aesthetic Computing every spring for the past three years and attracts about a dozen students per semester, mostly from the Digital Arts and Sciences program, which seeks to bridge the gap between Engineering and Fine Arts. The Aesthetic Computing class is combined lectures and projects. Students complete three projects, a digital two-dimensional mathematical representation, a digital three-dimensional mathematical representation and a physical model for display. "What we are learning here, is that not only can computing affect art, but art can affect computing."
What does the field of Aesthetic Computing offer society? According to Fishwick, he sees possibilities for new interfaces, such as what the Apple MacIntoshT did for the operating system. Aesthetic computing can also help to educate people using familiar metaphors, materials, objects and styles. "We see ourselves, in our research group, as building the next generation of modeling interfaces for math, computing and simulation. We want to leverage new technologies in 3-D visualization to re-think how models are formed. A direct result of our work will be new methods to help people interact with complicated structures in mathematics and computing, thus bringing intricate and difficult ideas to the user in entirely new and innovative ways."
The new field Aesthetic Computing is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Writer: Sandra Braun, sandiw77@bellsouth.net
Source: Paul Fishwick, 352-392-1414, fishwick@cise.ufl.edu
