Connotation in Computational Creativity

Computational creativity is the application of computers to perform tasks that would be regarded as creative if performed by humans. One approach to computational creativity is to regard it as a search process, where some conceptual space is searched, and perhaps transformed, to find an outcome that would be regarded as creative. Typically, such search processes have been guided by one or more objective functions that judge how creative each solution is on one or more dimensions. This paper introduces a contrasting approach, which is search based on the idea of connotations. Rather than exploring a space constructed solely of potential outcomes, a larger space is explored consisting of such outcomes together with other relevant information. This allows us to define search processes that include a more exploratory process, out of which an outcome emerges via density of connotations. Both the general principles behind this and some specific ideas are explored.