We consider automated generation of humorous texts by substitution of a single word in a given sh... more We consider automated generation of humorous texts by substitution of a single word in a given short text. In this setting, several factors that potentially contribute to the funniness of texts can be integrated into a unified framework as constraints on the lexical substitution. We discuss three types of such constraints: formal constraints concerning the similarity of sounds or spellings between the original word and the substitute, semantic or connotational constraints requiring the substitute to be a taboo word, and contextual constraints concerning the position and context of the replacement. Empirical evidence from extensive user studies using real SMSs as the corpus indicates that taboo constraints are statistically very effective, and so is a constraint requiring that the substitution takes place at the end of the text even though the effect is smaller. The effects of individual constraints are largely cumulative. In addition, connotational taboo words and word position have...
The ability to associate concepts is an important factor of creativity. We investigate the power ... more The ability to associate concepts is an important factor of creativity. We investigate the power of simple word co-occurrence analysis in tasks requiring verbal creativity. We first consider the Remote Associates Test, a psychometric measure of creativity. It turns out to be very easy for computers with access to statistics from a large corpus. Next, we address generation of poetry, an act with much more complex creative aspects. We outline methods that can produce surprisingly good poems based on existing linguistic corpora but otherwise minimal amounts of knowledge about language or poetry. The success of these simple methods suggests that corpus-based approaches can be powerful tools for computational support of creativity.
We employ a corpus-based approach to generate content and form in poetry. The main idea is to use... more We employ a corpus-based approach to generate content and form in poetry. The main idea is to use two different corpora, on one hand, to provide semantic content for new poems, and on the other hand, to generate a specific grammatical and poetic structure. The approach uses text mining methods, morphological analysis, and morphological synthesis to produce poetry in Finnish. We present some promising results obtained via the combination of these methods and preliminary evaluation results of poetry generated by the system.
Constraints are a major factor shaping the conceptual space of many areas of creativity. We propo... more Constraints are a major factor shaping the conceptual space of many areas of creativity. We propose to use constraint programming techniques and off-the-shelf constraint solvers in the creative task of poetry writing. We show how many aspects essential in different poetical forms, and partially even in the level of language syntax and semantics can be represented as interacting constraints. The proposed architecture has two main components. One takes input or inspiration from the user or the environment, and based on it generates a specification of the space and aesthetic of a poem as a set of declarative constraints. The other component explores the specified space using a constraint solver. We provide an elementary set of constraints for composition of poetry, we illustrate their use, and we provide examples of poems generated with different sets of constraints.
A fluent ability to associate tasks, concepts, ideas, knowledge and experiences in a relevant way... more A fluent ability to associate tasks, concepts, ideas, knowledge and experiences in a relevant way is often considered an important factor of creativity, especially in problem solving. We are interested in providing computational support for such creative associations.
This paper investigates how to transform machine creativity systems into interactive tools that s... more This paper investigates how to transform machine creativity systems into interactive tools that support human-computer co-creation. We use three case studies to identify common issues in this transformation, under the perspective of User-Centered Design. We also analyse the interactivity and creative behavior of the three platforms in terms of Wiggins' formalization of creativity as a search. We arrive at the conclusion that adapting creative software for supporting human-computer cocreation requires redesigning some major aspects of the software, which guides our on-going project of building an interactive poetry composition tool.
We propose a method for automated generation of adult humor by lexical replacement and present em... more We propose a method for automated generation of adult humor by lexical replacement and present empirical evaluation results of the obtained humor. We propose three types of lexical constraints as building blocks of humorous word substitution: constraints concerning the similarity of sounds or spellings of the original word and the substitute, a constraint requiring the substitute to be a taboo word, and constraints concerning the position and context of the replacement. Empirical evidence from extensive user studies indicates that these constraints can increase the effectiveness of humor generation significantly.
We address the challenging task of automatically composing lyrical songs with matching musical an... more We address the challenging task of automatically composing lyrical songs with matching musical and lyrical features, and we present the first prototype, M.U. Sicus-Apparatus, to accomplish the task. The focus of this paper is especially on generation of art songs (lieds). The proposed approach writes lyrics first and then composes music to match the lyrics. The crux is that the music composition subprocess has access to the internals of the lyrics writing subprocess, so the music can be composed to match the intentions and choices of lyrics writing, rather than just the surface of the lyrics. We present some example songs composed by M.U. Sicus, and we outline first steps towards a general system combining both music composition and writing of lyrics.
We propose using galvanic vestibular stimulation for presenting abstract data, for instance stock... more We propose using galvanic vestibular stimulation for presenting abstract data, for instance stock market trends. Using galvanic vestibular stimulation, data is felt directly as a perturbation in the sense of balance. This work is showcased as an art performance, where stock market fluctuations cause a person to maintain or lose balance. We present the artistic and technical principles underlying the performance and describe the technical implementation of a working system. The work shows how abstract data can be presented in a way that is not limited to visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile sensing.
This paper presents an art project which combines computational and human creativity. The paintin... more This paper presents an art project which combines computational and human creativity. The paintings created during the project visualize a process of generating computational poetry from daily news stories. We describe how the computational processes of generating poetry were visualized and then turned into paintings by an artist. The project has been exhibited in Finland and Estonia. The feedback collected during the exhibition in Finland is also included in the paper.
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Papers by Jukka Toivanen