OpenCode, the Web Browser as IDEĮmbedding applets and text code is one thing. (It’s also a great data source for Processing projects and the like!) And for six degrees of Create Digital Motion, one of the team at IBM is Jesse Kriss, who built Processing-Max communications conduit MaxLink. IBM Visual Communication Lab’s ManyEyes is a similar community built on working with data visualization, and makes some use of Flare.
(Flash is not truly open source, but work can be done in Flash that is, of course.) It’s also encouraging to see there’s embed capabilities, so you could embed the uploaded results onto a blog entry or forum post.įor a similar framework for data visualization for Flash - though without the accompanying online community - see the open source Flare library. With a variety of people contributing, part of the joy is seeing the range of expression, not just from experienced coders but newcomers, as well. Because Processing sketches can be easily exported as embedded applets, you can immediately see live, real-time results on the webpage, while comparing the open-sourced code that makes it function. OpenVisuals goes one step further, providing a framework for data visualization - thus, it’s not only a gallery, but a platform on which you can quickly see the results of turning data into something onscreen. OpenProcessing is a basic gallery with code for Processing sketches of all kinds. Sinan has also built OpenVisuals, a site dedicated to easily visualizing data in a consistent way, also using Processing: OpenProcessing is the work of Sinan Ascioglu, an NYU ITP student (I believe he has other contributors, as well). If “Art from Code” is intended as a gallery first, rather than a code repository, OpenProcessing is both, simultaneously. I’ll be watching and will let you know when there’s some code to go with the art. Keith does, however, promise some new graphics classes, and I’ll be very eager to translate them to the world of Processing, perhaps - again - imperfectly, resulting in something else. And I love that Keith works totally differently from the way I do.) (I’m personally guilty of making various unfair comparisons between Processing and Flash the bottom line is, you might as well compare watercolor and oil paint. So 99% of the time, sharing the code that created image X is impossible.Īlso, interestingly, Keith notes he often works with code directly on the timeline - something that’s not possible in Processing. I may even leave it off in a completely broken state, or in some cases, if I’m working in Flash, I never even end up saving the FLA with the code in it. I open up Flash or Flex Builder, start messing around, take some screen shots when something looks good, keep messing around and before long the code that resulted in the first image is long gone, having morphed into something else entirely. Two is that the code that has created most of the images here is ephemeral. Not that I’m against sharing the code, but I don’t want that to be the focus here. I want this site to be more about the images than an open source code repository. (It forces us to go back and try to reproduce the results, then get it all wrong, and wind up producing something original, often as a result of mistakes!) In a way, though, that makes the code even more beautiful - and sometimes sharing visual results can be just as interesting as sharing code. Just open sourcing the code isn’t always practical. Interestingly, the relationship between code and art is an imperfect one. I owe a huge debt to Keith, as I got into generative coding entirely through his books, before later going on to discover Processing. He’s got a second installment coming for his wonderful Making Things Move book, inspiring his isometric experiments pictured here, and he’s also launched a new site called “Art from Code.” (Various permutations of this theme come up regularly.) His books are clearly written and intuitive to non-programmers - despite their Flash basis, I’ve found them useful for my Processing experiments, too. Keith Peters, aka BIT-101, has been instrumental in the Flash community in advocating digital art and animation.