Prof. Peter Nelson
Prof. Peter Nelson is a scholar and practising artist whose work situates computer graphics, games, and creative technology within the broader history of fine art and landscape representation. As a researcher, Dr Nelson examines the ontology of digital images, realism in simulation, and the intersection of art history and game studies. His first monograph, Computer Games as Landscape Art (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), proposes that first-person shooter games can be critically understood through the art historical lens of landscape painting. His recent academic output focuses on the role of Generative AI in digital creative processes and the institutional strategies required for its pedagogical integration. As an artist with a career spanning over 20 years, Nelson’s practice bridges traditional media and emerging technologies. His recent work combines improvisational ink painting with custom robotic drawing systems to explore themes of technogenesis, mythology, and the post-human body. He exhibits with HanArt TZ Gallery and has showcased work at major venues including the National Palace Museum (Taiwan), the Sichuan Fine Art Academy Museum (Chongqing), and the HowArt Museum (Shanghai). He frequently collaborates on multimodal performance works with violinist and technologist Roberto Alonso Trillo.
Prof. Peter AC Nelson is currently working on a number of group and individual projects. In his studio, he is working on a new series of paintings that combine ink painting with computer-aided drawing and a small scale robotics and interactivity project. He has also recently finished a new version of his data visualisation project The Data Stones.
Funded Projects:
Project title: Collaborative Artistic Production with Generative Adversarial Networks
Co-PIs: Mr Daniel Shanken, Dr Roberto Alonso Trillo, Dr Francois Mouillot
Project Description: The social and cultural significance of machine learning is often defined by polarised perspectives. Machine-learning might be seen as opening exciting new pathways for creativity, or as a fundamental threat to the role of the artist. The development of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) as a classification and production mechanism represents a new opportunity for artists and humanities scholars to re-examine fundamental aspects of creativity. Recent publications in 3D mesh-generating GANs suggest that such systems might have profound impacts for sculpture and design practice. These impacts might challenge basic principles of form, function and aesthetics, and the creative use of such technologies might result in new and novel forms of data encryption. Given the rapid acceleration in the capacity and variety of these systems, it is critical that humanities scholars engage from both practical and theoretical level. We use a four-stage structure, where each stage is directed by one team member relative to their specialisation, and each stage builds upon knowledge gained in the previous stage. We work in close collaboration with an external consultant and two research assistants from the fields of computer science and anthropology/humanities to develop new creative tools and new datasets with research and cultural heritage value. Our project engages three technical challenges - developing a GAN system that can convert works of literature into 3D models of trees, developing a GAN system that can improvise 3D models of non-existent human hand tools, and developing a GAN system for collaborative musical performance. Each of these three technical elements will be combined into a single multimedia performance and presentation as well as a series of peer-reviewed journal publications. The reflective ethnographic part of the project makes use of the research team’s privileged access to and involvement in the development and implementation of the machine-learning system to offer an analysis of GAN and machine learning from a cultural perspective.
Current Supervision of Post-Graduate Students
As an educator, I draw on a wide range of academic and professional experiences to help students become independent problem solvers and critical thinkers. I have taught studio workshops in architectural drawing and analogue visual media, lab-based courses in 3D modelling and animation, lecture and tutorial-based courses visual studies and computer game studies, and specialised field trip courses for new media art students in remote locations. I use my experience as a practising artist to foster an environment of experimentation and iterative problem solving, and pay close attention to international developments in pedagogy. My most valued benchmark is to create an environment where students feel comfortable to share their mistakes as well as their solutions.
Exhibition Publication Award & Achievements