Contingent Computation: Abstraction, Experience, and Indeterminacy in Computational Aesthetics

Contingent Computation provides a new theoretical framework for philosophically engaging with computing by demonstrating that aesthetics is a valid approach to studying contemporary computational systems. It does this by advancing an original conception of computational aesthetics that encompasses the modes of being and becoming of computational processes, drawing on the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead. Fazi argues that computation is a process of determining indeterminacy at the formal heart of computational systems, which drives their functionality but may not always align with our traditional instrumental, representational, and cognitivist purposes.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 15 January 2019
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

In Contingent Computation, M. Beatrice Fazi presents a novel theoretical framework that enables us to engage philosophically with computing. The book demonstrates that aesthetics is a viable approach for exploring contemporary computational systems. It achieves this by advancing an original conception of computational aesthetics, which encompasses not only art created by or with computers but also the modes of being and becoming of computational processes.

Contingent Computation draws upon the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead to address aesthetics as an ontological study of the generative potential of reality. By employing a novel philosophical interpretation of Gödels incompleteness theorems and Turings notion of incomputability, Fazi identifies this potential at the formal core of computational systems. She argues that computation is a process of determining indeterminacy, which is fundamental to these systems. This indeterminacy, while central to computational systems, does not contradict their functionality. Instead, it drives their operation, albeit in ways that may not always align with the instrumental, representational, and cognitivist purposes that we have traditionally attributed to computing.

Through her exploration of these concepts, Fazi offers a fresh perspective on the nature of computing and its implications for our understanding of the world. She challenges us to reevaluate our assumptions about the role of computation in society and to consider its potential for shaping our future. Contingent Computation is a thought-provoking and insightful book that will appeal to scholars and practitioners in the fields of computer science, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Weight: 522g
Dimension: 159 x 235 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786606082