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:	9780262362030
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	57 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

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