Code as Creative Medium: A Handbook for Computational Art and Design

by Golan Levin, Tega Brain

Overview

An essential guide for teaching and learning computational art and design: exercises, assignments, interviews, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work.

This book is an essential resource for art educators and practitioners who want to explore code as a creative medium, and serves as a guide for computer scientists transitioning from STEM to STEAM in their syllabi or practice. It provides a collection of classic creative coding prompts and assignments, accompanied by annotated examples of both classic and contemporary projects, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work, and features a set of interviews with leading educators. Picking up where standard programming guides leave off, the authors highlight alternative programming pedagogies suitable for the art- and design-oriented classroom, including teaching approaches, resources, and community support structures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262542043
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Golan Levin is Professor of Electronic Art at Carnegie Mellon University, where is also Director of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

Tega Brain, an Australian-born artist, educator and researcher, is Assistant Professor of Integrated Digital Media at New York University. Her work has been exhibited in such venues as the Whitney Museum, the Guangzhou Triennial, the Vienna Design Biennale, and the Transmediale Festival.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Part One: Assignments
Iterative Pattern
Face Generator
Clock
Generative Landscape
Virtual Creature
Custom Pixel
Drawing Machine
Modular Alphabet
Data Self-Portrait
Augmented Projection
One-Button Game
Bot
Collective Memory
Experimental Chat
Browser Extension
Creative Cryptography
Voice Machine
Measuring Device
Personal Prosthetic
Parametric Object
Virtual Public Sculpture
Extrapolated Body
Synesthetic Instrument
Part Two: Exercises
Computing without a Computer
Graphic Elements
Iteration
Color
Conditional Testing
Unpredictability
Arrays
Time and Interactivity
Typography
Curves
Shapes
Geometry
Image
Visualization
Text and Language
Simulation
Machine Learning
Sound
Games
Part Three: Interviews
Teaching Programming to Artists and Designers
The Bimodal Classroom
Encouraging a Point of View
The First Day
Favorite Assignment
When Things Go Wrong
Most Memorable Response
Advice for New Educators
Classroom Techniques
Provenance
Appendices
Authors and Contributors
Notes on Computational Book Design
Acknowledgments
Bibliographies
Related Resources
Illustration Credits
Indexes
Name Index
Subject Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Code as Creative Medium is a must-read and an invaluable teaching tool for the creative coding community, from computer scientists and artists to teachers and students of computational arts. Developed by two of the most accomplished practitioners in the field, this book expertly expands knowledge in both coding and digital art history, offering the best of both worlds.”
—Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art, Whitney Museum; Professor of Media Studies, the New School
 
“Code as Creative Medium is both practical and poetic in its walkthrough of ideas large and small that can fluidly be integrated into a computational studio setting. This handbook represents a landmark task in updating centuries of traditional art practice to this very moment, when we can choose to either create with the machine or just get left behind.”
—John Maeda, technologist; author of How to Speak Machine
 
“This remarkable book brings code to artists and brings art to code. Teachers and learners can use these creative prompts to explore the building blocks of digital technology. The book itself seeds our minds with questions—not just answers—about how rule-based systems, user interaction, global connectivity, and virtual experience bridge the gap between computer science and the arts.”
—Ellen Lupton, Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair, Maryland Institute College of Art; coauthor of Health Design Thinking
 
“I am struck by Brain and Levin’s use of ‘make it meaningful,’ highlighting the critical core of this timely book—it links deeply the why to the how of teaching and learning creative coding.”
—Chris Coleman, Professor of Emergent Digital Practices and Director of the Clinic for Open Source Arts (COSA),University of Denver