See also an interview in HPlus Magazine which got slashdotted.

Related links:

1. Full publication list
(with additional HTML and pdf links)
2. Kolmogorov complexity
3. Complexity based on computational speed
4. Active exploration and curiosity and what's interesting
5. Fibonacci web design
6. TUM CS design
7. Deutsche Seite

Recent invited talks on Beauty, Surprise, Novelty, Curiosity, Creativity & Low-Complexity Art:

12 Nov 2009: Keynote for Multiple Ways to Design 09: Art & Science

3 Oct 2009: Invited talk for Singularity Summit, NYC. Videos: 40min, 20min, 10min

12 Jul 2009: Dagstuhl Castle Seminar on Computational Creativity

3 Sep 2008: Keynote for Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems KES 2008, Zagreb

2 Oct 2007: Joint invited lecture for Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2007) and Discovery Science (DS 2007), Sendai, Japan (the only joint invited lecture). Preprint

23 Aug 2007: Keynote for A*STAR Meeting on Expectation & Surprise, Singapore

[9] J. Schmidhuber. Art & science as by-products of the search for novel patterns, or data compressible in unknown yet learnable ways. In M. Botta (ed.), Multiple ways to design research. Research cases that reshape the design discipline, Milano-Lugano, Swiss Design Network - Et al. Edizioni, 2009, pp. 98-112. (Keynote talk.) PDF of preprint.

[8] J. Schmidhuber. Driven by Compression Progress: A Simple Principle Explains Essential Aspects of Subjective Beauty, Novelty, Surprise, Interestingness, Attention, Curiosity, Creativity, Art, Science, Music, Jokes. Based on KES 2008 keynote and ALT 2007 / DS 2007 joint invited lecture (below). Short version: Journal of SICE, 48(1):21-32, 2009. PDF. Long version in G. Pezzulo, M. V. Butz, O. Sigaud, G. Baldassarre, eds.: Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems, from Sensorimotor to Higher-level Cognitive Capabilities, Springer, LNAI, 2009, in press. Preprint (2008, revised 2009): arXiv:0812.4360. PDF (Dec 2008). PDF (April 2009).

[7] J. Schmidhuber. Simple Algorithmic Principles of Discovery, Subjective Beauty, Selective Attention, Curiosity & Creativity. In V. Corruble, M. Takeda, E. Suzuki, eds., Proc. 10th Intl. Conf. on Discovery Science (DS 2007) p. 26-38, LNAI 4755, Springer, 2007. Also in M. Hutter, R. A. Servedio, E. Takimoto, eds., Proc. 18th Intl. Conf. on Algorithmic Learning Theory (ALT 2007) p. 32, LNAI 4754, Springer, 2007. (Joint invited lecture for DS 2007 and ALT 2007, Sendai, Japan, 2007.) Preprint: arxiv:0709.0674. PDF. Curiosity as the drive to improve the compression of the lifelong sensory input stream: interestingness as the first derivative of subjective "beauty" or compressibility.

[6] J. Schmidhuber. Developmental Robotics, Optimal Artificial Curiosity, Creativity, Music, and the Fine Arts. Connection Science, 18(2): 173-187, June 2006. PDF. This paper emphasizes that beauty and interestingness are different things: the former reflects low complexity with respect to the observer, the latter the learning process leading from high to low subjective complexity.

[5] J. Schmidhuber. Facial beauty and fractal geometry. Note IDSIA-28-98, IDSIA, June 1998, published in the Cogprint Archive (ca. 450K, including 5 color figures).

[4] J. Schmidhuber. Low-Complexity Art. Leonardo, Journal of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, 30(2):97-103, MIT Press, 1997. Print on high-resolution (600 dpi) printer, preferrably double paged on A4 paper (172 K, uncompresses to 1.1 M). HTML version.

[3] J. Schmidhuber. Femmes Fractales. Report IDSIA-99-97, IDSIA, December 1997.

[2] J.  Schmidhuber. Algorithmisch einfache Kunst. Manuscript, 1994.