Art and Code
I was planning to wait another week before blogging about this, but it looks like things are starting to fill up, so…
On March 7-9, Carnegie Mellon will be hosting the ART AND CODE symposium, which is described as “a symposium on programming environments for artists, young people, and the rest of us.” Professor of Art (with a courtesy faculty appointment in computer science) Golan Levin is the symposium’s organizer, and as one might expect he brings his unique sense of technical depth and profound creativity to the entire program. Over ten “software art” platforms will be featured, with hands-on workshops and conference-style presentations. The Center for Computational Thinking, in conjunction with Microsoft Research, is the prime sponsor for the symposium.
The support from the Center for Computational Thinking is well justified. Quoting Golan:
Just as true literacy in English means being able to write as well as read, true literacy in software demands not only knowing how to use commercial software tools, but how to create new software for oneself and for others… Emerging primarily from the arts sector, a set of new programming tools (and accompanying pedagogic techniques) have been developed by artists, and for artists, to help regular folks and other non-computer-scientists learn to make software. Using visual and musical expression as the “hook”, thousands of people have not only learned to code using these new environments, but found new reasons to code in the first place.
In a nutshell, “Art and code is the software wing of the DIY movement,” according to Microsoft Research’s Tom McMail.
Should be very interesting, and lots of fun. If you want to register (and probably it’s better to register sooner than later), go to http://artandcode.ning.com/. Open to the public, with a modest registration fee.
Peter Lee @ February 23, 2009