CREATIVE AI RESEARCH GROUP
The Creative AI Research Group conducts artistic, scientific and practice-based investigations into state-of-the-art intelligent systems that co-create in real-time with humans.
About
Creative AI includes practices that are self-defined as such, and therefore have AI embedded into the process of creation, but also encompasses novel AI approaches in the realisation and experience of such work.
Our current and recent research includes areas such as
- robotic performance
- distributed AI artworks across locations,
- artificial musicians,
- interactive theatre,
- mixed reality gaming,
- AI poetry and journalist bots.
Our focus is on making humans more creative through the design, development and deployment of Creative AI. We aim for a symbiotic future, where artists and Creative AI work together as a continuous system of interactive relations.
Our research is based on a Human-Centred approach that is a) is able to understand humans, b) help humans understand them, c) co-creates within a given context. We believe that one of the key points to building the next generation of Creative AI systems is to prioritise co-operative and embodied AI in a shared creative enterprise. To achieve this, we utilise cutting edge Machine and Deep Learning technologies with unique Creative AI datasets combined with Human-Centered AI systems.
The group is hosted at the Institute of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University, and is led by Professor Craig Vear and Dr Fabrizio Augusto Poltronieri. Both are recognised international researchers in the field, with more than 15 years of experience in building prototypes and in conducting research and research supervision in the field of creative robotics, performance, image generation and music, employing Creative AI principles.
Contact:
Prof Vear: cvear@dmu.ac.uk
Dr Poltronieri: fabrizio.poltronieri@dmu.ac.uk
Members
Directors
Research Fellows
Prof. Ernest Edmonds (computational art) - senior fellow
Dr. Jethro Shell (gaming AI)
Dr. Hossein Malekmohamadi (computer vision and ML)
External Fellows
Prof. Lucia Santaella (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo)
Dr. Simon Hutchinson (University of New Haven)
Dr. Paul Turowski (Liverpool University)
PhD Researchers
James Cull (Creative AI directors and mixed reality performance)
Oliver Lerone Schultz (Heterocene Vision. Mapping, Photography and Lifescapes in the Anthropocene)
Sean Clark (Systems Theory and Digital Arts)

Prof. Craig Vear
Dr. Fabrizio Augusto Poltronieri
PUBLICATIONS (text, code, practice)
2020
Vear (2020) Nautilus (2020): Composition for Bass Flute and Neural Net GitHub
Vear (2020) The Voight-Kampff Test: Boxing match music performance for four Neural Nets GitHub
2019
Vear (2019) Seven Pleasures of Pris (2019) Improvising Ai robot duo with Multi-Layered Perceptron Neural Nets GitHub PDF
Poltronieri & Vear (2019) Human-Centred and Creative AI in Performative Robots PDF
Vear (2019) Embodied Musicking Robotics - An Infographic of design and principles IMAGE
2018
Vear (2018) Designing and Building a 1st stage dataset for embodied music-making (musicking). PDF
2017
Vear & Poltronieri (2017) Postcards (2017): Creative AI mixed-media compositional system for live performance with a human musician PDF
Vear (2017) On Junitaki Falls. Trio for solo instrument and two AI performers GitHub PDF