Casey Reas talk

The first thing I did in p5js on my own time was a chance operation. For whatever reason, I lost the code, or may have inadvertently deleted it, but I created a small wave of left-moving bars which went slightly higher or slightly lower than the previous, creating a sort of constant series of waves moving across the screen.

I love chance operations, but I found it hard to keep interested in the art-history crash course that Reas' talk ended up being, at least for the first 25 minutes. I was enjoying seeing all the abstract pieces and the means by which they were conceived, but I would have liked to see a bit more than just two-dimensional images. The randomly generated sculptures interested me the most, as did his own simulation of the small creatures moving toward or avoiding light.

When he began to discuss the Procesing programs, I started to get interested again. It was particularly interesting to see what adding symmetry did to the images, and how it created Rorshach blots of sorts. My favorite part, by far, was seeing his various takes on 10 PRINT, as I'd been exposed to that program before. I remember in my Intro to Programming class, after being taught 10 PRINT, playing around with it for quite some time.

It got me wondering, as he began to introduce interactive elements into the pieces at the end, how I would do the same.

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