Foreword: Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. In this workshop you’ll make your first steps!

I took part in an online course about „Creative Coding“ – I’ll share lessons learned and assist your first steps. Install Processing beforehand. We want to start right away B-)

The random generators add subject matter to the aesthetic structure or form. If the random generators were to rule alone, chaos would emerge. Because the aesthetic structure narrows down randomness by means of a computer programme, it „in-forms“ the chaos. Discernible aesthetic information is thus produced. Georg Nees (1969)

I’m intrigued by „the philosophy of randomness and the aesthetics of noise“ (quote from Jon McCormack’s introduction to week 4). That’s why I remebered an old Flash movie of mine and redid it in Processing:

At the end of week 4, the central questions for me was, how do I automatically generate colo(u)r harmony? Of course, the answer is one click away. I chose „X type“ from that paper and now look at that:

Do you know other ways to select colors? You’ll find the sketch Brownian Motion on GitHub. Tweak the random parameters to your liking – e.g. if you want to vary the number of elements change „n“ etc.

culture = random(knowledge++); // Martin Vögeli (2016)