The FET initiative Creative ICT was funded under the FP7 Work Programme and consisted of five projects, CoInvent, ConCreTe, Lrn2Cre8, WHIM, and the Coordination Action project PROSECCO. These projects aimed to develop a deeper scientific understanding of creativity, foster the synergy between understanding and enhancing human creativity, and new technologies for autonomous creative systems. They combine elements from artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and the arts.
CoInvent - Concept Invention Theory - The project aimed to develop a computationally feasible, cognitively inspired formal model of concept invention grounded in a sound mathematical theory of concepts. The objective of the project was to design a generic, creative computational system working in two domains of creativity: mathematics and music. Try their CoInvent blending system that combines mathematical reasoning and melodic harmonization.
ConCreTe - Concept Creation Technology - The aim of ConCreTe project was to design and build various tools and knowledge to explore creativity, to develop it further, and to examine and evaluate it from a scientific perspective. ConCreTe put together computer systems equipped with mechanisms enabling imitation of human creative behaviour. Tra-La-Lyrics 2.0 system automatically generates song lyrics, and Brain Poetry tool produces poetry from the user's brain waves.
Lrn2Cre8 - Learning to Create - Lrn2Cre8 focused on understanding the relationship between learning and creativity by means of practical engineering, theoretical study, and cognitive comparison. Lre2Cre8 uses music as its domain building systems that take musical data as input and learn the necessary representations and structure to memorise it efficiently. One of the project outcomes was a computer which learned to compose by itself. As a result of machine learning research the computer wrote music for the concert Meet the computers/composers! This was the first concert ever in which all of the music played had been written by a computer.
WHIM - The What-If Machine - The aim of the What-If Machine project was to build a software system that is able to invent, evaluate and present fictional ideas with real cultural value for artefacts such as stories, jokes, films, paintings and advertisements. The What-If Machine tool created a script that was successfully turned into a musical called Beyond the Fence. It was premiered at the Arts Theatre in London in February 2016.
PROSECCO - Promoting the Scientific Exploration of Computational Creativity – the objective of PROSECCO was to educate a new generation of researchers and bring existing researchers from neighbouring disciplines into the fold. The project has published numerous publications on computational creativity. PROSECCO also have developed a number of Creative Web Services such as the Stereotrope Poetry Generation providing poetry generation on demand or the Metaphor Magnet generating affective metaphors on demand.
Running between 2013 and 2016, all projects have now ended but promise a bright future for computational creativity.