Programming for Visual Artists

ARTS-A0701 – Digital Art 1

2024 - Lecture 9

• Mon, 26.2: Introduction, P5.js editor, shapes, coordinates and colours
• Tue, 27.2.: Variables, randomness
• Mon, 4.3: Animating with trigonometric functions
• Tue, 5.3: Animating with noise
• Mon, 11.3.: If-else, for-loop
• Tue, 12.3.: For-loop, noise
• Mon, 18.3.: Audio input, Interaction
• Tue, 19.3.: Images and video
• Mon, 25.3.: Recap, personal project
• Tue, 26.3.: Personal project
• Mon, 8.4.: Personal project, course feedback
• Tue, 9.4.: Presentations / exhibition?

Pass: final project + 6/8 assignments

Final Project

Goals

• Create a finalized thing
• Apply the new technical skills in a creative context
• Improve programming skills through debugging and committing to an end result
• Artistic expression in a a possibly unfamiliar medium

Generative art

Art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system

Tools: repetition

Emergent-like behavior from simple foundations:

Draw a diagonal line from left to right or right to left

Tools: repetition

Repeat the diagonal line

Tools: repetition

Change the line type

Tools: displacement

Draw a shape

Tools: displacement

Displace properties of the shape

Tools: displacement

Apply rules to displacement logic

Tools: displacement

Add repetition

Tools: displacement

Add more repetition

Autonomous systems

Code is a way to describe an autonomous system:

On blue walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not straight, and broken lines within a 36-inch (90 cm) grid.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing 260A
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

Autonomous systems

Code is a way to describe an autonomous system:

On blue walls, all two-part combinations of white arcs from corners and sides, and white straight, not straight, and broken lines within a 36-inch (90 cm) grid.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing 260A
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

Instructions

• Create a generative print, a series of prints or an animation with p5.js
• Experiment and iterate.
• Technical complexity is not of intrinsic value.
• Take small steps and make sure you understand your code.
• You can recreate a work that you have seen during this class or on Instagram etc. If you do that, focus on why you found it interesting and be open about the source.
• Don't copy code and if you do, cite the source in comments.
• Submit a p5js link on MyCourses before TBD

Take a look at #p5js on Instagram. You might recognise familiar algorithms and techniques.

Zach Lieberman's daily sketches are a great example on experimenting and iterating on a certain theme

You can also take a historical perspective and recreate something created before.