Month: September 2022

Link to project: https://editor.p5js.org/jiawen21/sketches/ltU2xb40B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is just a random experimental sketch of 4 different colors of ellipse surrounding a yellow looking sun. Originally, I had a different sketch but I feel like it’s too simple so I added more ellipses and a sun to it. However, after comparing these two, I still like the first sketch better. The first one has an illusion effect to it which I like.

I feel like when I just started to use the “if” statement, it was the hardest part for me, maybe because  since I’m not familiar with it, it’s hard to know what to put for the variables. After looking at the examples and asking the IMA fellows, I had a better idea of how “if” statement work.

REFLECTION

1. In my program, I used some simple variables such as r, g,b to store information. I wrote the colors down in advance, so that in the future when I want to use the same color, I don’t have to keep on typing out the numbers. I could just write r,g, b to replace the numbers.
2. I used the “if’ statement to make 5 different colors of ellipse and a yellow circle of lines. I used a total of 5 “if’ statements in my coding. I used the if (keyIsPressed && key==”letters”) to make the interactive  process. The ellipse turns out really great where it looks very 3D. I can adjust the x and y-axis of the circle to whatever size I want.
3. According to the class slides, the key variable “stores the value of the most recently pressed keyboard key as a char value. They correspond to the American Standard Code for information Interchange(ASCII). Whereas the keycold variable is used to detect special keys such as BACKSPACE, DELETE, ENTER, RETURN, TAB, ESCAPE, SHIFT, CONTROL, OPTION, ALT, UP_ARROW, DOWN_ARROW, LEFT_ARROW, RIGHT_ARROW.

 

 

 

 

The conditional designers believe that the process is a very important part of the whole art piece and that it is also considered as a product. They believe that there is a routine and rules involved in the process of making art. Whereas, the artist Bernard Frize believes that the process of creating is merely just a process and nothing else and what’s important is the final product. He believed that art should not have a set of rules and that it should be a free spiritual activity. 

The conditions for conditional drawing reminds me of origami class where there is a series of instructions to follow in order to get to the final  origami product. I find that when I follow instructions like these, the final product always turns out better than I expected. I think programming in some way is also like this, except it involves less rules. However, I do feel like I don’t have as much freedom if I were to compare the time when I’m doing art freely. When I’m doing art where there isn’t a set of rules, I feel like I have more freedom and it feels like I’m truly doing art. 

An interesting activity that I could think of is where a theme is given to a group of 4-5 people. They’re given a piece of paper and color pencils and they have to take turns drawing anything that’s related to that theme. I think this would end up having an interesting result because everyone might have a different concept or perspective  of what that theme is like to them. Someone could have drawn something that another person totally won’t understand or relate to but somehow it’s still related to that theme.

I think I can  imagine the resulting image in my head before I even have the set of rules made up in my head. Usually I would already know what my goal or product looks like beforehand  and I’ll make up the rules along the way during the process. Sometimes, my rules change, so basically I’m not a good follower when it comes to following rules in the arts. I like to do art freely.

Link to my code: https://editor.p5js.org/jiawen21/sketches/7ZiNzQBYg

Description:

This is a picture of an escalator bottom on my floor in my dorm. It has the up and down buttons and a number one written in yellow. It has some of the basic geometric shapes. It looks pretty easy to code but as a beginner, it took me a while to figure out the programming for number one and the coordinates of each shape.

Coding:

This is the part where I struggle with. This is one snippet of the code for the number 1. I didn’t know how to rotate the rectangle  to create a slanted rectangle. I had to search up the reference for it and study it. At first, I copy and pasted the reference from the p5.js website and then I changed the number one by one to see what function the code does. I think the code rotate() was the most useful here because I can adjust how slanted I want my rectangle to be. At first I put 3 for the rotate, but it was too slanted and then I put 1 and 2 and it didn’t fit. I ended up putting 4 because it was the perfect angle for the rectangle to be hanging on the number 1.

Reflection:

1) For right now, I think I prefer using the reference over the exploratory programming because I just started learning how to code so exploratory programming would be quite a hard task for me. I wouldn’t know where to start if I do exploratory programming.  After using the reference, I saw a pattern/language in coding, which I feel like could be very useful in the future when I want to do exploratory programming. I feel like I would use exploratory programming in my free time where there isn’t a time limit for me to finish the work.

2) Drawing on paper involves no specific patterns or language. All I need to do is pick up  a pencil and a paper and my hand would start moving from what my brain tells them to do.  It reminds me of how when we’re little, we had to learn how to use a pencil to draw or write. I think programming is also something that we need to learn from the start just like how a toddler learns how to write or draw. Learning how to program is like learning a new language and putting it to use.

3) One part where programming is easier than drawing on a piece of paper is that the object looks more realistic and looks almost very similar to the object in real life. In programming, if I want a certain color, I could just google the color numbers online and it’ll give me an exact color that matches the colors in real life. For drawing, sometimes it’s hard to find the right color that best matches the one in real life. It would involve a lot of work where one color has to mix with another color and it’ll take some time to finally get the right color for it. In addition, in programming it’s easy to input a straight line or a perfect circle. I could do  calculations and the program will know exactly where the middle for this object is. In drawing, I could only do estimations for everything.