Fitness function: turning the loop inside out

Abstract

The process of creating art is an optimization problem for which the objective function is probably unknown and possibly undefinable. That objective function is imposed on the artist by an environment which may be composed of any of a number of sources: peers, a jury, society, the self. This does not imply that the function is arbitrary nor that the optimization is impossible; however, it does suggest an interesting interpretation of the artist at work.