Software over the rainbow

Being an actionscript head, I’ve frequently used rober penner’s easing equations in processing*. To avoid copy/paste each time I’ve packed them as a processing library.

While I was at it, I discovered a couple of implementations (1, 2), but I was almost done, and wanted to learn how to make processing libraries anyway.

So in the hope that it is useful to somebody, here it is:
http://jesusgollonet.com/processing/pennerEasing/

*I’m also using them in openFrameworks, so I’ve begun porting them to c++ too. They’ll be here when I’m done.

Last week I went to a two-day openframeworks workshop run by Zach Lieberman at hangar.

As said here before (and elsewhere), openframeworks is an open-source library to help other artists and students produce works through coding, written in C++. Yes, this might sound familiar. Its philosophy and intentions are very similar to processing’s.

However, openframeworks is not an IDE, but a set of coherent wrappers around useful libraries. As zach puts it, it is more of a glue that puts together different pieces:

• OpenGL for graphics displaying,
• FreeImage for image manipulation,
• Freetype for font displaying and manipulation,
• rtAudio for audio.
• Quicktime (mac or pc), directShow (pc) and (soon) Video4Linux (linux) for video grabbing and playing

Some of the key concepts behind openframeworks:

• Its focus is to simplify things. The main intention is that “you don’t have to look at much code when you’re beginning” (which is far from easy in c++).
• It’s conformed of reusable pieces, not stitched together. You can use any of its parts independently.
• It pretends to give you direct access to data e.g: pixels of the image, low level audio

I’ve been using it for the last couple of months. I had never done anything with c++ nor I had any idea of where to start and openframeworks has definitely made the learning curve way smoother. Having been around for ages, c++ has lots of picky details to worry about (pointers vs variables, preprocessor, different compilers, uncompatible IDEs….) so having some sort of blueprint which shares some of the programming concepts with processing makes you feel a little more like at home.

Although it’s been used extensively to give workshops and classes, it’s in super-alpha state (even the installation process was being tested on our workshop). Zach is working with Theo Watson on a really-soon-to-publish release. Most of the stuff will work on win, mac and linux.

So stay tuned.

So this morning I found that someone had already done an idea which I had been thinking of for some time (probably since I did the Steve Reich’s Clapping Music version in ChucK):

Source code for “In C” by Terry Riley in ChucK

No problem. With the amount of information we have a few clicks away, it’s impossible to maintain the naive belief that our ideas are original.

Having a look at the programmer’s website (ah, curiosity) I’ve discovered why the url sounded so familiar: He’s also the man behind whitney music box, a well known series of animations inspired by the work of john whitney, as described in his book Digital Harmony: On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art. The post explaining the work is worth a look.

(on a deeper look, I’ve found more gems, such as the article Processing as a first language, as compared to flash, his processing gallery or the JSyd Java Synth)

Anyway, what I find particularly interesting is the exercise of trying to emulate in code art works which weren’t originally conceived for that. We know the construction rules (the score and/or the composer’s instructions) and the final result (the recording), so I see them as ideal programming practice problems.

Because of its main focus on processes rather than final products, I’d say that some art of the 60’s and 70’s is specially suitable for this task. We’ve talked about minimal composers (reich, glass, riley), but I’m also thinking of process art (see Casey Reas implementations of instructions by Sol Lewitt) or even John Cage (whom most famous work has been also versioned by Jim Bumgardner in justone line of chuck code: (4*60+33)::second => now) .

A couple of other examples:

• Piano phase after Steve Reich with source code in JMusic (Java)
• PD Repertory Project: Some live electronic music repertoire pieces in Pure Data (including works by Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Stockhausen and others)
• (Update) The Riley-o-matic by Daniel Iglesia, more In C (implemented in, well, C)

Do you know of more examples? Let me know in the comments.

After the recent workshop by joan soler-adillon in hangar, we’ve known of two more forthcoming workshops:

• on October the 16th, 19th, 23th, 26th, 30th and November the 2nd, gerald kogler will teach one at the centro cívico Golferichs of barcelona. + info
• on October the 24th, 25th and 26th, federico joselevich will give another one in Granollers, at La Fàbrica de les Arts. + info

So yesterday I gave a talk about my experience with processing at the begining processing workshop which is being held at Hangar by Joan Soler.

First part was about my reasons for learning-using-loving processing and how I’ve managed to use it in a commercial context. Then I went into a tutorial explaining the ascii video sketch. Finally i improvised an explanation of a del.icio.us information visualization project I had done at a previous workshop, which i think turned to be the most interesting thing for the audience.

It was my first experience as a speaker and although i don’t think it went too bad, the ascii tutorial didn’t work as I expected. Going too deep into code details doesn’t seem to be approppriate for a one hour session. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here are the slides (in spanish only) and the source files for the ascii tutorial.

Thanks very much to Joan for inviting me and to all the assistants for not leaving the room.

That is, some of my friends growing up tend to draw, you know
whenever. Start a sketch, doodle in class, pick up something,
refine it, etc. Anyway, these folks end up getting really good,
less out of diligent patience than iterated and distracted
practice. […]

For a process to be sketchy, or like sketching, it should:
- be immediate, quick to engage or start up in
- be incremental, easy to save and resume working on

Maravillosa definición de lo que es un software sketchbook. Lo dice graham coleman acerca de chuck. 100% aplicable a processing.

Gerald Kogler ha traducido el clásico Processing Tutorial for Macromedia Minds de Josh Nimoy al castellano. Tal y como su nombre indica, si vienes de entornos como flash o director es de lo mejorcito para hacerte con la herramienta. Igualmente, dado que es un tutorial de iniciación, es una buena lectura para los que quieran dar el salto:

Tutorial de Processing para Mentes Macromedia.