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If you're more into math and art than optimization tricks, check out Bridges.

(I (re)?discovered math art about 3 years ago, and it sort of reminded me of the early 90s demoscene, except this time it's for grownups. I got into Bridges as soon as I heard of it, and it's my third year taking part in some way; there's also an art exhibition and a short film festival for those of us who'd rather just show off what they do instead of giving lectures.)

Things are much the same now - there are so many things that computers can do, it's hard to actually see them as new or interesting and they are completely un-understandable for a developing mind.

Computers themselves are boring in this way, but there's an infinity of things that get really exciting when you apply computers to them. To me, some of the biggest things are music and math.

After playing in a youth orchestra for a couple of years, one of the fellow musicians introduced me to music trackers (this was in the early 90s). Suddenly I could make entire pieces myself, rather than just playing one voice in a huge band. I've ended up composing entire musical plays in the past years.

As for math, I've always been interested in it, but I ended up with a more applied-science career due to a number of other interests. About a decade ago, I was stuck for a couple of summer months with nothing to do, and I discovered Project Euler. I regained some early interest in pure math, and eventually I went back to the university for its math department. I completed all the coursework for a secondary Master's degree, but in another twist of fate I never finished my thesis. From a course of fractal geometry, I got lost into doing math art, and got myself a publication which kind of makes it up for the thesis. I continue to make this into another career, which would never have been possible without applying computers to the math problems.

So I have these two wonderful "art" things going on, all thanks to these nerdy and completely non-artsy computers. But more generally, thanks to a few different disciplines put together. I also work with a playwright/director who has a background in a few natural sciences besides a few arts, and it shows compared to those writers that only went to art school.

Agreed, and I'd like to go a bit further with the art/music analogy. I think mathematics is an integral (pun intended) part of our culture, like it or not. You might not like classical music, but you'll probably appreciate its influences on more modern music.

This is somewhat related to the idea of math as a tool. For instance, I'd like young people to appreciate all the scientific research that went into creating their shiny electronic toys. But there's a lot more than the utilitarian aspect. A lot of our world and culture is built on mathematical and scientific ideas, simply because they have been effective means of making progress. Today's culture is increasingly digital and computational, so we should be teaching math even more as a form of art, rather than a tool for engineers.

Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/processing/
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/generative/

Individuals:
http://flickr.com/photos/joshuadavis/ || joshuadavis.com
http://flickr.com/photos/flight404/ || flight404.com

Many others to be found here:
maxalot.com
http://www.maxalot.com/xpsf/xpsif_all.shtml
http://www.bridgesmathart.org/art-exhibits/jmm08/index.html

References:
Art in the Digital Age

"Fractal Crystal No. 1" vs "The Sierpinski Penis Game"