The Association for Computational Creativity (ACC) invites all its members and any colleagues interested in the area to send a proposal for organising the 14th International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC’23). For this call, the Association will favour those proposals to host the conference outside Europe; however, if none of them satisfies the ACC’s requirements, bids inside Europe will also be considered. The deadline for submitting proposals is the 15th of December, 2021.

The hosting bid guidelines can be found here: 
http://computationalcreativity.net/home/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/HostingBidOrganizingICCCGuidelines.pdf. 

To express interest or for any questions, please contact the secretary of the ACC, Dan Ventura, or its chair, Tony Veale.

The convocation, in line with our constitution as defined in Portuguese law, is formally from 14:00 CET, Friday 1st October.
The assembly will begin its business at 15:00 CET. Location: on-line, members should request access details from chair.

Agenda

1. General information
2. Reports of Activities 20-21 and Plans for 21-22, deliberations
   1. Chair of SC
   2. ICCC ’21
   3. ICCC ‘22
   4. JCC
3. Uniformity of reviewing process in ICCC – proposal and discussion
   (Paper to be circulated prior to event, time permitting.)
4. Any other business
5. Close of meeting

The Association of Computational Creativity are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Robert M. Keller, who passed away on September 13th 2020.

Bob gave so much to the computational creativity community, as a good friend and mentor to many and a strong supporter of our conference series (ICCC). Bob was a regular participant in our conferences ever since they started back in 2010, as well as in workshops prior to the conference series. He always had something to contribute with papers, demos, posters and conversations, and was always available to review.

He was also a great person. It was always wonderful to hear what he’d been up to and to have the pleasure of his intelligent and entertaining company. We loved to see him with his wife Noel, who joined us for many social events.

Bob worked on the Impro-Visor system for many years, and this work was of huge significance in computational creativity research.

https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/

Bob’s Impro-Visor system is one of the main contributions in computational jazz improvisation. Here is a fascinating video of when Bob and Impro-Visor met up with Al Biles and Biles’s GenJam system for a jam:

Of course, because he wanted to help rather than compete, Impro-Visor teaches students, as well as having options to solo, accompany, trade fours, etc. Rather like Bob himself, in fact.

We will remember Bob at our next ICCC conference (Mexico, 2021), recognising his contributions and celebrating his memory.

The world will be a poorer place without Bob Keller. He was a kind, genuine, delightful person and he will certainly be missed.

RIP Bob

If you wish to record your own personal tribute to Bob, there is an “In Memorium” page set up by Harvey Mudd College [1], with tributes pouring in from past colleagues, students and friends. This memorial page also notes that:
“The family requests that contributions in Bob’s honor be made to the Jazz Education Network’s Scholarship Program, the American Brain Tumor Association, and the Sierra Club Foundation.”

The Computational Creativity Task Force was established to support the collective advancement of the computational creativity research community.

Its first report, published in the ICCC’20 Proceedings, presents an exploration of who we are as a community: the authors and program committee members of the International Conference on Computational Creativity.

Read the full report here.