Collaborative Drawing Systems

There is an established research history of human-computer improvisation systems within music, performance, and jazz. However, an open research question is how a human and a computer would collaborate in an open manner within visual arts, in particular sketching and drawing. Faced with the proposition of such a collaborative sketching system, there is a lack of understanding what the clear use cases would be for how such a collaboration would provide utility for a visual artist. As a result, the principal research question for the thesis is how can technology and current developments in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision contribute to the drawing process for an artist through collaboration?

To begin to answer this question, one must understand the utility of drawing itself, and what it contributes to the creative process for practitioners such as professional illustrators, fine artists, and art students. One can address through a mixed-methods qualitative and quantitative research study. The aim being to discover possible roles that technology could play in observing, modelling, and possible assisting an artist with their drawing practise. The outcomes of this study will inform a set of experimental interactions within a modular real-time system that observes, learns from, and interacts with the visual artist. Through the development and study of such a proposed research system, one can answer and understand the principal research question mentioned above.