Adrian Parr's Blog

A couple of months ago The MIT Press released 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, written by Casey Reas and friends.

Here is a brief overview taken from the MIT Press website …

This book takes a single line of code–the extremely concise BASIC program for the Commodore 64 inscribed in the title–and uses it as a lens through which to consider the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture. The authors of this collaboratively written book treat code not as merely functional but as a text–in the case of 10 PRINT, a text that appeared in many different printed sources–that yields a story about its making, its purpose, its assumptions, and more. They consider randomness and regularity in computing and art, the maze in culture, the popular BASIC programming language, and the highly influential Commodore 64 computer.

You can see the result of this one line of code on YouTube here.

Casey Reas discussed it in a bit more detail during his presentation at the Eyeo Festival 2012. Check out the 30 minute mark in this Vimeo recording.

You can buy the book from Amazon.co.uk or download a free PDF version which is released under a Creative Commons licence.

I’ve always liked Word Clouds (aka tag clouds), so this morning I decided to create one that reflects the things that interest me. There are a few online tools for creating your own word clouds. I chose Wordle, which is the original online tool.

Click here to view a larger version of my word cloud.

CodeKen 2012 is an online conference happening on Tuesday 6th November 2012 via Google Hangouts On Air. The speakers include Seb Lee-Delisle talking about his PixelPhones project and Estelle Weyl talking about mobile web development. The schedule can be seen here. The schedule mentions Day 1 and Day 2, but elsewhere on the site it says it is a one day event, so I’m not sure which it is. Anyway, go ahead and register, so that you are notified about the start nearer the time.

Last month there was a conference held in Zurich, Switzerland at the Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation called The Graphical Web. It used to be called SVG Open, but this time the name change is to reflect the wider graphical web technologies (SVG, Canvas, CSS transitions, CSS transforms, tooling etc).

You can see what the schedule was here. One of my favourite speakers was there, Joshua Davis.

The main reason for this blog post is to highlight the fact that they recorded all the sessions and have put them online for free. There are some really interesting sessions here. Check them out below …

• 11th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E3
• 11th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E9
• 12th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E3
• 12th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E9
• 13th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E3
• 13th September 2012 - Lecture Hall E9
  

Here is a full list of the sessions …

• A journey through the graphical Web
• SVG and SVG Open – a retrospective
• Designing the modern web
• Inkscape Update, 2012 Edition
• SVG in eBooks – Packaging the Graphical Web for Offline Use
• SVG2 for the artist
• SVG-Editor
• W3C Panel
• Bender: A Declarative, Dynamic Framework for Web Application User Interfaces
• Building Interactive Environments with SVG for Google Blockly
• Screenshot annotations in the browser
• Visualization of Soccer Statistics
• Google Swiffy: Converting SWF files to open web technologies
• Beyond Play
• WebGIS with vector data using OpenLayers and GeoExt
• Generating interactive meteorological maps and graphs for the web
• Web mapping with vector data. Is it the future?
• Dynamic, interactive vector maps for the new web
• Mappetizer Web Mapping Application goes Mobile
• Introduction of SVG Map Platform and its Application
• SVGTL: Proposal of web standard by SVG applicable as Mapping Platform
• SVG Map Panel
• The Graphical Web 2013 and Beyond
• Using Gravity to Navigate the Internet and other Graphs
• Declarative Randomness for Scene Drawing in SVG
• Math education with SVG. Part1: Two dimensions
• Math education with SVG. Part 2: Three dimensions
• Highcharts implementation and architecture
• Tributary: See What You Get
• Web Graphics Symbiosis
• Web graphics from research to apps to action
• Bringing the Power of the GPU to the Web
• New rendering features in HTML
• Next generation SVG & CSS animation
• The Future of HTML5 Motion Design
• Web Animations
• BonsaiJS – A Graphics and Animation Library
• SpinetiX hardware SVG players and its applications to Digital Signage
• Expand or contract the Universe
• Wow: Compelling Visual Experiences from the frontiers of Open Web
• Processing and Rendering Massive 3D Geospatial Environments using WebGL
• Georeferencer & WebGL Earth
• Satellite Images Color Adjustment Using HTML5 Technologies
• Using the Open Web Platform for Thematic Mapping in a Geo-Webservices Environment
• Area of Interest Based Interaction and GeoVisualization with WebGL
• WebGL – Fashion buttons prototyping from 3D Design to Production
• Web-based Declarative 3D Graphics for Anthropometry Visualization and Education
• youSCADA©, SCADA as a Service: Monitoring and Controlling Devices and Objects via Cloud

Enjoy!

Another conference coming up (next year) that looks interesting is Resonate. It is taking place in Belgrade, Serbia and is on from 21st – 23rd March 2013. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday 23rd October 2012 and only cost €55 if you get in there early.

The current list of speakers includes (among others) …

• Casey Reas
• Golan Levin
• Andreas Müller
• Kyle McDonald
• Memo Akten

The full website for the conference launches on 6th November 2012.

Follow the organisers on Twitter here.

I’ve just come across an awesome conference happening in Munich, Germany on 23rd & 24th November 2012. It’s called the Push Conference, and is focussed on User Experience (Sold Out) and Interactive Arts. I’m particularly interested in the sessions by some of the people on the second day …

• Kyle McDonald
• Karsten Schmidt
• Marius Watz

There are still tickets available for day two (Interactive Arts) and they are currently only € 89.00

A new podcast has been brought to my attention called the Creative Coding Podcast.

Hosted by Seb Lee-Delisle and Iain Lobb, two names I’m sure you will recognise from the UK Flash scene.

They will be discussing the ins-and-outs of programming for visual and creative applications. The first episode only went out on 30th January 2011, so it is still early days. Give them your support by subscribing in iTunes now.

Here are direct links to the three episodes so far …

• Episode 1: Web games, HTML5 and Jangaroo
• Episode 2: Mobile Devices Special
• Episode 3: Molehill and Processing with Jer Thorp

Enjoy!

UPDATE – October 29th 2012 – New episodes have been added below …

• Episode 4 – Flash Special (plus WebGL and Unity3D)
• Episode 5 – Game Design and Conference Etiquette with Ryan Henson Creighton
• Episode 6 – openFrameworks, Adobe CS5.5 and multi-touch gaming
• Episode 7 – openFrameworks and Open Source with Pete Hellicar and Joel Gethin Lewis
• Episode 8 – Rome, Chrome and Angry Birds
• Episode 10 – Teaching Game Development, Stencyl and New York
• Episode 11 – Eyeo Festival with Golan Levin and Ben Fry
• Episode 12 – Art from code with Casey Reas and Marius Watz
• Episode 13 – JavaScript, Corona and Seb’s jumbotron
• Episode 14 – Live from Flash on the Beach! With Lee Brimelow, John Davey and Keith Peters
• Episode 15 – Unity3D with Aras Pranckevičius
• Episode 16 – Flashageddon with Stacey Mulcahy
• Episode 17 – Coding a platform game, haXe NME and Big Spaceship’s Joshua Hirsh
• Episode 18 – How to teach programming, with Daniel Shiffman
• Episode 19 – Trolling, jQuery and Open Frameworks with Joshua Noble
• Episode 20 – CSS Special with Val Head
• Episode 21 – three.js with Mr.doob, live from FITC Amsterdam
• Episode 22 – Meeting Flash game developers at Flash Gaming Summit
• Episode 23 – Making games with Flash, Node.js and Scratch
• Episode 24 – Game cloning, intellectual property and ideas
• Episode 25 – US visas, retina screens and art for non-artists
• Episode 26 – Kyle McDonald meets the Secret Service
• Episode 27 – openFrameworks and C++ with Zach Lieberman

I have just found about the Eyeo Festival, and WOW, what an amazing line-up of speakers there is!!

Here are just a few names from the speaker list …

• Zach Lieberman
• Theo Watson
• Robert Hodgin
• Casey Reas
• Aaron Koblin
• Ben Fry
• Jer Thorp

The event is lasts for three days, is on from June 27th to 29th 2011 and is being held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.

The venue is the McNamara Alumni Center, and looks like a pretty amazing building. Check the images of it here.

Visit the official website to find out more information.

Decode: Digital Design Sensations

Victoria and Albert Museum
London, UK
8 December 2009 – 11 April 2010

A new digital art exhibition is on at the V&A in London (in collaboration with onedotzero) called Decode. It is showcasing works from Daniel Brown, Karsten Schmidt (aka Toxi), Aaron Koblin, Golan Levin, Daniel Rozin, Jonathan Harris, Sep Kamvar, Simon Heijdens and Troika. If you are interested in digital art, interactivity, physical computing, installaions, flash, processing, openframeworks or circit bending then I suggest you check it out.

There is also an impressive list of events throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Visit the Decode microsite to find out more information

UPDATE 07/01/10:
Timeout have 2-for-1 tickets
http://www.timeout.com/london/timeout-free-events/tickets/event/id/242