Art From Code

Yeah, it’s been a while. 2009 was the year of iPhone apps. Objective-C is a fun language, but so different than anything else that it takes a lot of concentration to get through the learning curve. I had a lot of fun with it, but by the end of last year I became kind of burnt out on the whole thing. For the last month or two, I haven’t really been doing much coding outside of work at all. A much needed break.

But in the last few weeks I’ve been feeling the itch to create something with code. In the Resources section of this site, I’ve listed a few different tools that one can use for creating art with code. While I’ve downloaded and kicked the tires of most of them, I hadn’t really done anything serious with any of them. I decided this would be a good time to dig into some of these tools and languages a bit deeper.

So, for the next few weeks or months, you will hopefully see some new, non-Flash stuff up here. I’ve been playing with Context Free Art quite a bit, so the first series of images will come from that. I’ve also been experimenting with Structure Synth, which has a very similar paradigm, so look for some images from that as well. And more tools/languages to come.

If you are really stalking me, then you’ll know that I will be speaking at FiTC in Toronto this April. My presentation is called Programming Art, and I hope to touch on a number of these tools, showing how to get them, the concept behind them, and a whirlwind tutorial on each one. This forces me into actually learning each one myself, so gives plenty of opportunities to create interesting images, many of which will wind up here.

As you may have noticed, I don’t post a lot of code here. But, a few days ago I spoke at FiTC in Amsterdam, on the subject of Art from Code. I showed a bit of the code that created a lot of the images here and have shared it on my other site, bit-101.com. If you are interested, you can get the slides from the presentation as well as all the code, here.

[EDIT - 2/28/09] I don’t want to delete the post or anything, but you can safely ignore most of what I say here. I spoke too soon and jumped to conclusions and what I say here is no longer relevant. Well, some of the overarching sentiments are, but not so much in relation to this specific symposium.[/EDIT]

OK, quick, when you think “Art and Code”, what platform/language/system do you think of?

I think Processing, ActionScript, vvvv, NodeBox, ToolBox (links in resources section at top of page).

How about Silverlight?

I was excited to hear about this Art and Code symposium:

http://artandcode.ning.com/

And then I looked at the lineup. First of all, it’s VERY Processing heavy, which is not surprising at all, and not bad at all. But I don’t do a lot of processing, so I started looking for what they might have on ActionScript / Flash. Hmm… well there’s “Processing for Flash Developers”. Not quite what I’m looking for. Gee, there’s NOTHING on Flash or ActionScript. That’s odd. I’m not trying to push Flash down anyone’s throat, but it seems really odd that in 3 full days of sessions on Art and Code there wouldn’t be a single Flash / AS session.

But wait, there are TWO Silverlight sessions. At the bottom of the page we see Corporate Sponsors: Microsoft Research. In the list of Tools at the top nav, Silverlight is mentioned but not Flash. Come on, now. Is ANYONE doing computer/generative/algorithmic/etc. art with Silverlight??? Now I’m not trying to knock Silverlight, or even say that it couldn’t be used for such things. It certainly could. But is anyone actually using it for such? Here are the tools listed on the site:

* Alice
* Hackety Hack
* Max/MSP/Jitter
* openFrameworks
* Processing
* Scratch
* Silverlight
* vvvv

Honestly, which one doesn’t belong?

I honestly searched for anyone doing any kind of art in Silverlight, of the type of stuff that you see with Processing, vvvv, and the other tools listed there. I couldn’t find anything. I did find this site, which held some promise:

http://www.microsoft.com/click/artandtechnology

But there’s nothing about ART there, really, just high profile, slick corporate Silverlight sites.

It seems that Golan Levin is putting on this Art and Code thing, which makes me sad, as he’s someone I really respect in the field. It’s not that I even really have a problem with Silverlight being in a symposium like this, but the obvious exclusion of anything Flash based is a gaping hole. I mean, you look at Erik Natzke, Jared Tarbell, Mario Klingemann, Dr. Woohoo, Mark Knol, Thomas Kraftner, Joshua Davis, Yugo Nakamura, the list goes on and on. And on.

It’s just such a blatant omission. I can only speculate that MS cash had something to do with this. I know it works the other way – if you have an Adobe sponsored conference, there is pressure to not have MS stuff there. So I’m not saying MS is evil and Adobe is squeaky clean. I just hate the BS politics and corporate blackmail that goes on and diminishes the value of something like this by making it a false picture of reality, painted by corporate cash.

End of rant.

I’m taking a break for the rest of the year. All 13 days of it. Taking some time off work. Going to finish up a game I’m coding and otherwise just chill out. Happy holidays if  you celebrate any, and see you in January!

visualcomplexity is a very nice resource for data visualization, information graphics, and just plain cool-looking pictures. I was happy to see that Art From Code recently got listed there.

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?id=633&index=633

People do seem to like those darned webs…

Been getting lots of links from all over. So thanks.

This one kind of impressed me. From creativecontact.com:

The type of work Peters is involved in follows in a deep tradition dating back to some of the earliest avant-gardes. Tristan Tzara, and later William Burroughs, with their literary cut-up techniques. Sol LeWitt with his wall drawings and modular sculptures. John Cage with his experimental compositions, and following in his footsteps, Brian Eno.

Just being mentioned in the same paragraph as those other people is kind of nice.

One of the feeds I’ve subscribed to lately is Neatorama. All kinds of odd, quirky, cool stuff there. But this entry pleasantly surprised me today:

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/10/19/art-from-code-turning-computer-codes-into-visual-art/

I’m going to take a quick break from posting images here. If you haven’t guessed already, I don’t actually create images every day. I generally create several in the course of a heads-down coding session and schedule them to be published over the next few days. I’ve managed to keep about a week’s buffer in queue, so if I missed a day or two I could catch up later.

But being in England for a week pretty much emptied that buffer. So I’ve been scrambling for the last week or so. And now I have 1.5 chapters on my next book that are way overdue. So I’m heads-down writing that for the next couple weeks. Then hopefully I’ll fill up the buffer again and go from there. Lots of good ideas in the head, just no time to execute them.

I plan to start doing prints of some of the images here and offering them for sale. This involves making higher resolution versions. With Flash 10 I am able to do over 4000×4000 pixel bitmaps natively, and a lot bigger if I start tiling, not to mention save them natively. I’ve got some test prints going now and should have them in hand in the next day or two. At 300 dpi, 4000 pixels should be good for 13-14 inches. I’m pushing it up to 24 inches – still over 150 dpi, which is what people say is minimum for print. If that looks like crap, I’ll have to tile.

In the mean time, I’d like to guage the interest in this, which images people might be interested in having prints of, and what size would be desirable.

Get this book:

Computers and the Imagination: Visual Adventures Beyond the Edge

by Clifford Pickover

It’s a tough book to describe. All kinds of math, physics, fractal, science, computer related stuff in there. Pretty stream of consciousness. Some sample BASIC programs for some of the images. Discussions of off the wall topics. Some chapters consist of a single page presenting an odd idea. Others get into really complex formulas. But flip through it and you’re sure to have something click in your head. Several of the pieces here are based on, or inspired by stuff from this book. And a lot more in store.

I’ve renewed my library’s copy twice now, but just sprung for the 98 cent used copy on Amazon! I’m really not that cheap. I just ran across it in the library and haven’t been able to put it down. Went to Amazon and all they had were used copies. I could choose between “good condition” one being offered for $101.87, or the “very good condition” one for $0.98.