Title
Conceptualizing Birkhoff's aesthetic measure using Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity
Abstract
In 1928, George D. Birkhoff introduced the Aesthetic Measure, defined as the ratio between order and complexity, and, in 1965, Max Bense analyzed Birkhoff's measure from an information theory point of view. In this paper, the concepts of order and complexity in an image (in our case, a painting) are analyzed in the light of Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity. We also present a new vision of the creative process: the initial uncertainty, obtained from the Shannon entropy of the repertoire (palette), is transformed into algorithmic information content, defined by the Kolmogorov complexity of the image. From this perspective, the Birkhoff's Aesthetic Measure is presented as the ratio between the algorithmic reduction of uncertainty (order) and the initial uncertainty (complexity). The measures proposed are applied to several works of Mondrian, Pollock, and van Gogh.
Year
DOI
Venue
2007
10.2312/COMPAESTH/COMPAESTH07/105-112
Computational Aesthetics
Keywords
Field
DocType
aesthetic measure,algorithmic information content,max bense,conceptualizing birkhoff,information theory point,algorithmic reduction,shannon entropy,kolmogorov complexity,initial uncertainty,creative process,george d
Information theory,Discrete mathematics,Kolmogorov complexity,Pure mathematics,Aesthetic measure,Shannon's source coding theorem,Kolmogorov structure function,Mondrian,Entropy (information theory),Mathematics
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
12
1.03
10
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jaume Rigau114314.11
Miquel Feixas263745.61
Mateu Sbert31108123.95