ISTA 301: The Last Blog of the Semester

Over the time spent in this course (ISTA 301: Computing and the Arts), I have had a wonderful time looking at the newer, technological side of art that I was formerly not as familiar with (I had traditional art history buffs in the family, thus I only knew up to Dadaism before the class began).  Now when I consider what "Art" is, I feel like I have a better way to defend newer media and the digital art styles I find so fascinating, because thanks to this course, we have looked at some of the arguements surrounding new media art, and have been able to create our own projects to create our own new media art.

Thus, where art to me before was really only the traditional (I was also a bit of a studio artist dealing mostly in intaglio printing and other printmaking forms), I can also include the digital, and redefine art (my personal definition), as a sensory experience that invokes some form of reaction from the viewer.  In other words, thanks to this class, my definition for art has become less specific, and practically could encompass any number of things that may or may not be art, because art already has a pretty flimsy definition to begin with.

As for my knowledge of creative practices and computational thinking, as I took this class due to my interest in computer sciences and the possibilities found within technology, I feel that this course has helped broaden my horizons and introduced me to many different and interesting concepts, such as programming art using Processing, or Algorithmic art.  I truly enjoyed the entire course and I am happy that I took it.  Thank you Professor Thomas for a fun semester!!

~~~~~Nathaniel Hendrix

Using Processing: ISTA 301 Blog #3

In accordance with the assignment, I have gathered together the products of my work with the Processing language as described by the D2L post :

1)

size(800,600);

background(0,26,130);

{noStroke();

fill(250,100,100);

quad(0,600,0,500,800,500,800,600);}

fill(255,255,255);

stroke(2);

ellipse(400, 300, 600, 600);

line(400,60,400,500);

fill(125,125,0);

noStroke();{

ellipse(300,50,150,50);

ellipse(500,50,150,50);

fill(120,0,125);

triangle(400,60,150,250,650,250);

fill(0,125,150);

quad(0,120,188,0,89,600,400,466);

quad(800,120,622,0,711,600,400,466);

}

fill(0,0,0);

ellipse(400,500,50,50);

This is a static image using multiple shapes (3 quadrilaterals, 3 ellipses, 1 traingle, and a line, with a random color assortment).

2) In order to make this static image active, and have it refresh at 60fps, you take any background and size functions, and put them in the void setup() function using {}, then you put all shapes and put them into the void draw() function using {}. This forces the image to refresh rather than just be drawn, though it makes the exact same image in this case.

void setup(){

size(800,600);

background(0,26,130);

}

void draw() {

{noStroke();

fill(250,100,100);

quad(0,600,0,500,800,500,800,600);}

fill(255,255,255);

stroke(2);

ellipse(400, 300, 600, 600);

line(400,60,400,500);

fill(125,125,0);

noStroke();{

ellipse(300,50,150,50);

ellipse(500,50,150,50);

fill(120,0,125);

triangle(400,60,150,250,650,250);

fill(0,125,150);

quad(0,120,188,0,89,600,400,466);

quad(800,120,622,0,711,600,400,466);

}

fill(0,0,0);

ellipse(400,500,50,50);

}

3)  As an example of the beginShape() and endShape() functions, I made this and gave it a red background:

It uses 22 vertexes, and began by plotting out the right side, then looping back to draw a mirror image on the left side. The red is extra.

size(1000,1000);

background(255,0,0);

beginShape();

vertex(500,100);

vertex(505,250);

vertex(575,300);

vertex(550,325);

vertex(555,350);

vertex(560,375);

vertex(620,400);

vertex(570,410);

vertex(550,420);

vertex(550,475); 

vertex(560,500);

vertex(500,550);

vertex(440,500);

vertex(450,475);

vertex(450,420);

vertex(430,410);

vertex(380,400);

vertex(440,375);

vertex(445,350);

vertex(450,325);

vertex(425,300);

vertex(495,250);

endShape(CLOSE);

4) Using a "for loop" to draw 15 rectangles:

I chose to do the placement using variables, though in an increasing manner, and used random color assignment (between cyan and lime green), using a random interger.

 size(1000,1000);

  background(255,255,255);

  smooth();

 for (int i = 50; i < 750; i += 50) { 

  float y = random(39);

  

  if(y < 20){

        fill(0,255,255);

  }else{

        fill(51,255,51);

  }

  

      quad(i, 40, i + 50, 40, i+50,i+90, i, i+90); 

  }

  

This concludes the playing around with Processing Blog. 

~~Nathaniel Hendrix