Assoc Prof Jon McCormack - Researcher Profile

Biography

Jon McCormack is an electronic media artist, theorist and computer science researcher.  Since the late 1980s McCormack has worked with computer code as a medium for creative expression. His research is concerned with developing new forms of creativity through technology.

His artworks have been widely exhibited at leading galleries, museums and symposia, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), Tate Gallery (Liverpool, UK), ACM SIGGRAPH (USA), Prix Ars Electronica (Austria) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Australia). His has received over 15 international awards for research and new media art including prizes at Ars Electronica (Austria), Images du Futur (Canada), New Voices, New Visions (USA), Alias/Wavefront (USA), The John Lansdown Award for Interactive Media (UK), and Nagoya Biennial (Japan). McCormack led the team that was awarded the 2012 Eureka Prize for innovation in computer science.

The monograph, "Impossible Nature: the art of Jon McCormack", was published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in 2005. The book documents McCormack’s creative achievements over the last 15 years and reflects on the philosophical and creative ideas behind his unique work.

McCormack is Associate Professor, ARC Australian Research Fellow and Director of the Centre for Electronic Media Art, Monash University, Melbourne. He also holds a Visiting Research Fellow position at Goldsmiths, University of London and was recently artist in residence at the Ars Electronica Future Lab, in Linz, Austria.

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Related Links:

• Web Site: Jon McCormack

Research & Supervision Interests

Electronic Media Art

Evolutionary Music and Art

Artificial Life

Computational Creativity

Human-machine interfaces

Cybernetic systems

Agent-based modelling

Visualisation and virtual environments

Keywords

ARTS/HUMANITIES/CULTURAL ACTIVITIES, Art Works/Artifacts, Artificial Intelligence/Cybernetics, Digital Computers/Computing, Digital imaging and photomedia, Electronic Media, Evolutionary computing, L-systems, Virtual Reality, Visual Arts, Visualization, artificial life, electronic media art, evolutionary computing, computer music, computer graphics, creativity, developmental models, digital design, digital music, ecosystems, generative art, morphogenesis, sound arts, virtual reality

Qualifications

PHD

Institution: Monash University

Year awarded: 2005

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS)

Institution: Monash University

Year awarded: 1987

GRADUATE DIP. ART (FILM AND TELEVISION)

Institution: Swinburne Univeristy

Year awarded: 1986

Publications

Books

McCormack, J.P., d'Inverno, M. (eds), 2012, Computers and Creativity, Springer, Berlin Germay.

Giacobini, M., Brabazon, A., Cagnoni, S., Di Caro, G.A., Drechsler, R., Ekart, A., Esparacia-Alcazar, A.I., Farooq, M., Fink, A., McCormack, J.P., O'Neill, M., Romero, J., Rothlauf, F., Squillero, G., Uyar, A., Yang, S. (eds), 2008, Applications of Evolutionary Computing, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany.

Brown, P., Cunningham, D.W., Interrante, V., McCormack, J.P. (eds), 2008, Computational Aesthetics 2008, Eurographics Association, Switzerland.

McCormack, J.P. (ed), 2004, Impossible Nature: The Art of Jon McCormack, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne Vic Australia.

Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P. (eds), 2001, Leonardo: Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology, MIT Press Journals, Cambridge MA USA.

Dorin, A., McCormack, J. (eds), 1999, First Iteration - A Conference on Generative Systems in the Electronic Arts, Centre for Electronic Media Arts, Monash Univ.,, Clayton Vic Australia.

McCormack, J., Sherstyuk, A.V., 1997, Creating and rendering convolution surfaces, Dept Computer Science, Monash University, Melbourne Vic Australia.

Book Chapters

McCormack, J.P., d'Inverno, M., 2012, Computers and creativity: The road ahead, in Computers and Creativity, eds Jon McCormack and Mark d'Inverno, Springer, Berlin Germany, pp. 421-424.

McCormack, J.P., 2012, Creative ecosystems, in Computers and Creativity, eds Jon McCormack and Mark d'Inverno, Springer, Berlin Germany, pp. 39-60.

Cohen, H., Nake, F., Brown, D., Brown, P., Galanter, P., McCormack, J.P., d'Inverno, M., 2012, Evaluation of creative aesthetics, in Computers and Creativity, eds Jon McCormack and Mark d'Inverno, Springer, Berlin Germany, pp. 95-111.

McCormack, J.P., McIlwain, P., 2011, Generative composition with Nodal, in A-Life for Music: Music and Computer Models of Living Systems, eds Eduardo Reck Miranda, A-R Editions, Middleton WI USA, pp. 99-113.

McCormack, J.P., 2010, Evolutionary art: Cosmic pyramids from the bottom up, in Emocao art.ficial 5.0 – Autonomia Cibernetica, eds Jahitza Balaniuk, Itau Cultural, Sao Paulo Brazil, pp. 47-59.

McCormack, J.P., Eldridge, A.C., Dorin, A., McIlwain, P.A., 2009, Generative algorithms for making music: Emergence, evolution, and ecosystems, in The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music, eds Roger T Dean, Oxford University Press, New York NY USA, pp. 354-379.

McCormack, J.P., 2008, Evolutionary L-systems, in Design by Evolution: Advances in Evolutionary Design, eds Philip F Hingston, Luigi C Barone and Zbigniew Michalewicz, Springer, Berlin Germany, pp. 169-196.

McCormack, J.P., 2008, Facing the future: Evolutionary possibilities for human-machine creativity, in The Art of Artificial Evolution: A Handbook on Evolutionary Art and Music, eds Juan Romero and Penousal Machado, Springer, Berlin Germany, pp. 417-451.

McCormack, J.P., 2005, On the evolution of sonic ecosystems, in Artificial Life Models in Software, eds A Adamatzky and M Komosinski, Springer, London UK, pp. 211-230.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, Art and the artificial, in Impossible Nature, eds J McCormack, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Vic Australia, pp. 2-13.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, Art, emergence, and the computational sublime, in Impossible Nature, eds J McCormack, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Vic Australia, pp. 54-75.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, The beauty to be, in Impossible Nature, eds J McCormack, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Vic Australia, pp. 14-19.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, The real thing: the frame problem in visual art, cinema, and virtual reality, in Impossible Nature, eds J McCormack, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Vic Australia, pp. 26-39.

Journal Articles

Dorin, A., McCabe, J., McCormack, J.P., Monro, G., Whitelaw, M., 2012, A framework for understanding generative art, Digital Creativity [P], vol 23, issue 3-4, Routledge, Abingdon England, pp. 239-259.

Kowaliw, T.M., Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P., 2012, Promoting creative design in interactive evolutionary computation, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation [P], vol 16, issue 4, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 523-536.

Porter, B.S., McCormack, J.P., 2010, Developmental modelling with SDS, Computers and Graphics [P], vol 34, issue 4, Elsevier Ltd, Oxford UK, pp. 294-303.

Bown, O.R., McCormack, J.P., 2010, Taming nature: Tapping the creative potential of ecosystem models in the arts, Digital Creativity [P], vol 21, issue 4, Routledge, Abingdon UK, pp. 215-231.

Bown, O.R., Eldridge, A.C., McCormack, J.P., 2009, Understanding interaction in contemporary digital music: From instruments to behavioural objects, Organised Sound [P], vol 14, issue 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, pp. 188-196.

McCormack, J.P., 2006, New challenges for evolutionary music and art, ACM SIGEVOlution, vol 1, issue 1, ACM Press, New York USA, pp. 5-11.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, Evolutionary design - The artificial life of Jon McCormack, Desktop: Australian Design:Digital Culture: 200 Then and now, vol 1, issue 200, Niche Group Pty Ltd, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 44-50.

McCormack, J.P., 2003, Art and the mirror of nature, Digital Creativity, vol 14, issue 1, Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers, The Netherlands, pp. 3-22.

McCormack, J.P., 2003, Evolving sonic ecosystems, Kybernetes, vol 32, issue 1/2, Emerald, Bradford UK, pp. 184-202.

McCormack, J., 2002, Evolving for the audience, International Journal of Design Computing, vol 4, Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 1-13.

McCormack, J., 2001, Eden: an evolutionary sonic ecosystem, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, vol 2159, Springer-Verlag Berlin, Berlin Germany, pp. 133-142.

McCormack, J.P., 2001, Unweaving Complexity - How science is now reversing the loom and rewinding nature, The Magazine of Craft Victoria, vol 32, issue 241, Craft Victoria, Vic Australia, p. 19.

McCormack, J.P., Sherstyuk, A.V., 1998, Creating and rendering convolution surfaces, Computer Graphics Forum, vol 17, issue 2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford UK, pp. 113-120.

McCormack, J., 1997, Turbulence: An interactive museum of unnatural history, MESH: The Journal of Exprimenta Media Arts, vol 11, Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 37-40.

Conference Proceedings

Pirniaye, A., McCormack, J.P., 2012, Compressed multidimensional trees for evolutionary music representation, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2012, 9 September 2012 to 14 September 2012, The International Computer Music Association, San Francisco CA USA, pp. 608-613.

Kowaliw, T.M., McCormack, J.P., Dorin, A., 2011, An interactive electronic art system based on artificial ecosystemics, Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life, 11 April 2011 to 15 April 2011, IEEE, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 162-169.

Bown, O.R., McCormack, J.P., 2011, Creative agency: A clearer goal for artificial life in the arts, Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Advances in Artificial Life - Darwin Meets von Neumann, 13 September 2009 to 16 September 2009, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, pp. 254-261.

Bown, O.R., McCormack, J.P., Kowaliw, T.M., 2011, Ecosytemic methods for creative domains: Niche construction and boundary formation, Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life, 11 April 2011 to 15 April 2011, IEEE, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 132-139.

McCormack, J.P., 2010, Enhancing creativity with niche construction, Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, 19 August 2010 to 23 August 2010, The MIT Press, Cambridge MA USA, pp. 525-532.

Kowaliw, T.M., McCormack, J.P., Dorin, A., 2010, Evolutionary automated recognition and characterization of an individual's artistic style, Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (IEEE CEC 2010), 18 July 2010 to 23 July 2010, IEEE, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 2234-2241.

Kowaliw, T.M., Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P., 2009, An empirical exploration of a definition of creative novelty for generative art, Proceedings of the 4th Australian Conference on Artificial Life: Borrowing from Biology (ACAL 2009), 1 December 2009 to 4 December 2009, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, pp. 1-10.

McCormack, J.P., Bown, O.R., 2009, Life's what you make: Niche construction and evolutionary art, Proceedings of EvoWorkshops 2009, 15 April 2009 to 17 April 2009, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, pp. 528-537.

Jones, D., Bown, O.R., McCormack, J.P., Pachet, F., Young, M., Berry, R., Asaf, I., Porter, B.S., 2009, Stimulating creative flow through computational feedback, Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings 09291: Computational Creativity: An Interdisciplinary Approach, 12 July 2009 to 17 July 2009, LZI (Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH), Wadern Germany, pp. 1-10.

Eldridge, A.C., Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P., 2008, Manipulating artificial ecosystems, Proceedings of the EvoWorkshops 2008: EvoCOMNET, EvoFIN, EvoHOT, EvoIASP, EvoMUSART, EvoNUM, EvoSTOC, and EvoTransLog, 26 March 2008 to 28 March 2008, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, pp. 392-401.

McCormack, J.P., 2007, Artificial ecosystems for creative discovery, Proceedings of the 9th Annual Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 7 July 2007 to 11 July 2007, The Association for Computing Machinery, New York NY USA, pp. 301-307.

McCormack, J.P., 2007, Creative ecosystems, Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Computational Creativity, 17 June 2007 to 19 June 2007, Goldsmiths, University of London, London UK, pp. 129-136.

McCormack, J.P., McIlwain, P.A., Lane, A.A., Dorin, A., 2007, Generative composition with Nodal, Proceedings of the Workshop on Music and Artificial Life, 10 September 2007, ICCMR, Plymouth UK, pp. 1-13.

McIlwain, P.A., McCormack, J.P., Dorin, A., Lane, A.A., 2006, Composing with nodal networks, Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2006, 11 July 2006 to 13 July 2006, Australasian Computer Music Association, Fitzroy Vic Australia, pp. 101-107.

McIlwain, P.A., McCormack, J.P., 2005, Design issues in musical composition networks, ACMC05 Generate and Test: Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2005, 12 July 2005 to 14 July 2005, Australasian Computer Music Association, Fitzroy Vic Australia, pp. 96-101.

McCormack, J.P., Dorin, A., Innocent, T.C., 2005, Generative design: a paradigm for design research, Futureground, 17November 2004 to 21 November 2004, Monash University, Faculty of Art & Design, Caulfield East Vic Australia, p. 0.

McCormack, J.P., 2005, Open problems in evolutionary music and art, Proceedings of the EvoWorkshops 2005: EvoBIO, EvoCOMNET, EvoHOT, EvoIASP, EvoMUSART, and EvoSTOC: Applications of Evolutionary Computing, 30 March 2005 to 1 April 2005, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Germany, pp. 428-436.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, Aesthetic evolution of L-systems revisited, Proceedings of the EvoWorkshops 2004: EvoBIO, EvoCOMNET, EvoHOT, EvoIASP, EvoMUSART, and EvoSTOC: Applications of Evolutionary Computing, 5 April 2004 to 7 April 2004, Springer-Verlag Berlin, Berlin Germany, pp. 477-488.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, Generative modelling with Timed L-systems, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC 2004), 19 July 2004 to 21July 2004, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht The Netherlands, pp. 157-175.

Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P., 2003, Self-assembling dynamical hierarchies, Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems (ALIFE VIII), 09 December 2002 to 13 December 2002, The MIT Press, London England, pp. 423-428.

McCormack, J., Dorin, A., 2002, Ways of seeing: visualization of artificial life environments, Workshop Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, 09 December 2002 to 13 December 2002, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia, pp. 155-162.

McCormack, J., Dorin, A., 2001, Art, emergence, and the computational sublime, Proceedings of The Second International Conference on Generative Systems in the Electronic Arts, 05 May2001 to 07 May 2001, Centre for Electronic Media Art, Vic Australia, pp. 67-81.

McCormack, J., 2000, Re-Designing Nature, Future Screen OO: Artificial Life: Hard|Soft|Wet, Sydney NSW, 27-29 October 2000, dLux Media Arts, Sydnew NSW.

Other

McCormack, J.P., 2012, Q&A Jon McCormack: Species futurologist (Interview by Jascha Hoffman), Nature, Nature Publishing Group, London England.

McCormack, J.P., 2009, BIOTOPE, Frankston Arts Centre, Glass Studio Cube 37, Frankston Vic Australia, 13 July 2010 to 10 August 2010.

McCormack, J.P., 2009, COLOURFIELD, Guildford Lane Gallery, Guildford Lane Gallery, Melbourne Vic Australia, 3 December 2009 to 20 December 2009.

McCormack, J.P., 2009, EDEN, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung Taiwan, 24 October 2009 to 28 February 2010.

McCormack, J.P., McIlwain, P.A., Lane, A.A., Dorin, A., 2007, Nodal 1.0R, Centre for Electroni Media Arts, Australia.

McCormack, J.P., 2005, Different Bits, Interview by Heather Dewey-Hagborg for the public radio program, San Francisco Broadcast, San Francisco CA USA.

McCormack, J.P., 2005, Extra-Aesthetic: 25 View of the Monash University Collection, Invited Contribution, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne Vic Australia, pp. 32-33.

Dorin, A., McCormack, J.P., Montgomery, A.Y., Rigby, M., 2005, The Deep, Melbourne Museum, 2005.

McCormack, J.P., 2004, SenseSurround (Exhibition), Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne Vic Australia, 07/10/2004.

McCormack, J., 2000, 64 - Video, Griffith Artworks ( Queensland College of Art, Griffith University & the State Library of Queensland), 19 November 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Cover Image for "Australia Council Annual Report 1999/2000", Australia Council, NSW, 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Cover Image for "Bendigo Art Gallery Annual Report 2000", Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC, 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Cover Image for "Generation Asia", Asialink Circle Newsletter, Issue 11, University of Melbourne, September 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Cover Image for "Museum National", Cover Image, Vol 9 Issue 1, August 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Designer Profile, IT Graphics Magazine, Sydney NSW Australia.

McCormack, J., 2000, Eden (Interactive CD-ROM Installation), Casula Power House, Sydnew NSW, 30 September - 12 November 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, New Life at Casula Powerhouse, IT Graphics Magazine, Sydney NSW Australia.

McCormack, J., 2000, The Descent of Man, Contribution to Radio Documentary, ABC Radio National, ABC Radio National, Clayton Vic Australia.

McCormack, J., 2000, The Descent of Man, The Science Show.

McCormack, J., 2000, Universal Zoologies (Mixed Media Installation), National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur MALAYSIA, 30 March - 20 April 2000.

McCormack, J., 2000, Virtual Worlds, Independent Filmmaker Magazine, Sydney NSW Australia.

McCormack, J., 1998, New Media Arts Fund of the Australian Council, Sunday Arts - Radio 3LO, ABC Radio, Melbourne Vic Australia.

McCormack, J., Warner, G., 1997, Acoustic environment, 6-29 November 1997, Artspace, Woolloomooloo Australia, Artspace Gallery.

Teaching Commitment

Professor Jon McCormack  is the Chief Examiner for the following unit/s in the Faculty of IT;

• FIT4012 - Advanced topics in computational science

 Jon teaches the following unit/s in the Faculty of IT;

• FIT4012 - Advanced topics in computational science

Grants

Title:

A Process-Based Approach to Generative Form Synthesis.

Investigators:

McCormack, J, Dorin, A, Whitelaw, M, Latham, W

Funding:

(2010 - 2014). Australian Research Council (ARC).

(2010 - 2014). Monash University.

(2010 - 2014). University of Canberra.

Title:

Artificial Ecologies Artwork.

Investigators:

McCormack, J

Funding:

(2008 - 2012). Australia Council for the Arts.

Title:

Australian Art Residency at FutureLab. Ars Electronica, Linz (Austria).

Investigators:

McCormack, J

Funding:

(2011 - 2015). Australia Council for the Arts via Novamedia Ltd.

Title:

Computational Creativity: an evolutionary ecosystem approach.

Investigators:

McCormack, J

Funding:

(2008 - 2011). Australian Research Council (ARC).

(2008 - 2012). Australian Research Council (ARC).

(2008 - 2012). Monash University.

Title:

Computer visualisation system (Apple Mac Pro with 2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 'Westmere' processors, ATI 5070 Graphics accelerator and display).

Investigators:

McCormack, J

Funding:

(2011 - 2015). Collier Charitable Fund.

Title:

Design after Nature: Generative Models for Digital Media.

Investigators:

McCormack, J, Dorin, A, Innocent, T

Funding:

(2006 - 2010). Australian Research Council (ARC).

(2007 - 2011). Australian Research Council (ARC).

(2009 - 2013). Australian Research Council (ARC).

Title:

Sennheiser MKH8020 Microphones, Telinga Universal kit with flexible dish, Sound Devices 552 mixer.

Investigators:

McCormack, J

Funding:

(2013 - 2016). Collier Charitable Fund.

Title:

Virtual Reality Observatory of Melbourne.

Investigators:

McCormack, J, Dorin, A

Funding:

(2003 - 2007). Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry & Regional Development (DIIRD).

(2008 - 2012). Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry & Regional Development (DIIRD).

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Crypsis: Perception, Mimicry and Camouflage in Computer-Based Evolutionary Art..

Supervisors:

Hoffert, B (Main), Dziekan, V (Associate), Mccormack, J (Associate).

Completed Supervision

Student:

Guglielmetti, M.

Program of Study:

After life. (PHD) 2012.

Supervisors:

Dziekan, V (Main), Mccormack, J (Associate), Dorin, A (Associate).

Student:

Harrison, P.

Program of Study:

Image texture tools: texture synthesis, texture transfer and plausible restoration. (PHD) 2005.

Supervisors:

Dorin, A (Main), Mccormack, J (Associate).

Student:

Mckeich, M.

Program of Study:

Style coding. (PHD) 2010.

Supervisors:

Miles, M (Main), Mccormack, J (Associate).

Student:

Porter, B.

Program of Study:

A developmental system for organic form synthesis. (PHD) 2011.

Supervisors:

Mccormack, J (Main), Dorin, A (Associate).