COINVENT: Towards a Computational Concept Invention Theory

We aim to develop a computationally feasible, cognitively-inspired, formal model of concept invention, drawing on Fauconnier and Turner’s theory of conceptual blending, and grounding it on a sound mathematical theory of concepts. Conceptual blending, although successfully applied to de-scribing combinational creativity in a varied number of fields, has barely been used at all for implementing creative compu-tational systems, mainly due to the lack of sufficiently precise mathematical characterisations thereof. The model we will define will be based on Goguen’s proposal of a Unified Con-cept Theory, and will draw from interdisciplinary research results from cognitive science, artificial intelligence, formal methods and computational creativity. To validate our model, we will implement a proof of concept of an autonomous computational creative system that will be evaluated in two testbed scenarios: mathematical reasoning and melodic har-monisation. We envisage that the results of this project will be significant for gaining a deeper scientific understanding of creativity, for fostering the synergy between understand-ing and enhancing human creativity, and for developing new technologies for autonomous creative systems