Oh, I just rediscovered “old” Macromedia Director MX for doodling creative code. It got me some time to get into the syntax again, but this is so pure fun to code that thing. In opposition to java or c++ the macromedia thing is so loose. There are many ways to archieve things with various syntax. For example: “set the forecolor of sprite 12 to 155″ is the same like “sprite(12).forecolor = 155″. This Director is friendly to you and also has charming limitations: you can for example only draw 255 layers of single objects. On the other hand you can generate very quickly pixel or vector-objects and use them to draw or modify them on the fly. I don’t want to glorify this piece of software here, but the feeling I got in using this software again is very charming to me. I don’t care about software version here. I even don’t know of there is a newer version of Director available. I am talking about emotional value to a tool I’ve made a choice for.

Incredibly old software?

What I love most is the fact, that the will be no new update, no new things to learn, no new interfaces. Using old versions drives this thoughts into my mind: there is nothing more to expect. You have to live with the limitations. You have to get creative to find workarounds instead of waiting for new features to come. Finally you have to go through all of the software and master it. You will be an expert with your tool if you use is year after year. It is just like a master craftsmen able to work with plane and wood. And at least: using old softwareversion relief you from the fear of new updates to come. Updates not always makes the product better.

Oh, I just rediscovered “old” Macromedia Director MX for doodling creative code. It got me some time to get into the syntax again, but this is so pure fun to code that thing. In opposition to java or c++ the macromedia thing is so loose. There are many ways to archieve things with various syntax. For example: “set the forecolor of sprite 12 to 155″ is the same like “sprite(12).forecolor = 155″. This Director is friendly to you and also has charming limitations: you can for example only draw 255 layers of single objects. On the other hand you can generate very quickly pixel or vector-objects and use them to draw or modify them on the fly. I don’t want to glorify this piece of software here, but the feeling I got in using this software again is very charming to me. I don’t care about software version here. I even don’t know of there is a newer version of Director available. I am talking about emotional value to a tool I’ve made a choice for.

Incredibly old software?

What I love most is the fact, that the will be no new update, no new things to learn, no new interfaces. Using old versions drives this thoughts into my mind: there is nothing more to expect. You have to live with the limitations. You have to get creative to find workarounds instead of waiting for new features to come. Finally you have to go through all of the software and master it. You will be an expert with your tool if you use is year after year. It is just like a master craftsmen able to work with plane and wood. And at least: using old softwareversion relief you from the fear of new updates to come. Updates not always makes the product better.

Squares of doong

thats amazing randy!

well, its alright. even if the white box is a little gay.

If you want to restart it refresh it! (oh and the placing of the new boxes isnt exactly random… im going to have to figure that one out)

Socialfiction call themselves: carthographic sadism, gabber avant-gardism, experimental knowledge, DIY urbanism, autonomous spacetravel, gymnosophistic delight, disco socialism, peripatetic hedonism. And that bold attitude is also visible in their texts. I suggest to read Generator X: Software Wants to Loop Forever, where they place code right next to Oracle Bones and generic generators. “A programmer is a selector of rules, a composer of conditions, a constructor of restraints. It is easier for an object to fall down than to be carried upwards. Gravity is the generator, the programmer the levitationist.”

and

“Generative systems are complex generators packed with inner loops and filters which once composed can generate all legal statements in the specific domain the generator generates: anagrams, correct English sentences, suffix trees, conceptual universes built with symbols, sounds or pixels. Once the hard work of generating exactly what you want to generate is accomplished, a generator becomes a black box, a force of nature in your computational playground that no longer needs you and which only when badly coded can be forced to go Super Nova.”

Socialfiction call themselves: carthographic sadism, gabber avant-gardism, experimental knowledge, DIY urbanism, autonomous spacetravel, gymnosophistic delight, disco socialism, peripatetic hedonism. And that bold attitude is also visible in their texts. I suggest to read Generator X: Software Wants to Loop Forever, where they place code right next to Oracle Bones and generic generators. “A programmer is a selector of rules, a composer of conditions, a constructor of restraints. It is easier for an object to fall down than to be carried upwards. Gravity is the generator, the programmer the levitationist.”

and

“Generative systems are complex generators packed with inner loops and filters which once composed can generate all legal statements in the specific domain the generator generates: anagrams, correct English sentences, suffix trees, conceptual universes built with symbols, sounds or pixels. Once the hard work of generating exactly what you want to generate is accomplished, a generator becomes a black box, a force of nature in your computational playground that no longer needs you and which only when badly coded can be forced to go Super Nova.”

Facade is a new type of gaming experience - in which the entire narrative is generated on the fly depending on user interaction. From the website:

Façade is an artificial intelligence-based art/research experiment in electronic narrative – an attempt to move beyond traditional branching or hyper-linked narrative to create a fully-realized, one-act interactive drama. Integrating an interdisciplinary set of artistic practices and artificial intelligence technologies, we have completed a five year collaboration to engineer a novel architecture for supporting emotional, interactive character behavior and drama-managed plot. Within this architecture we have built a dramatically interesting, real-time 3D virtual world inhabited by computer-controlled characters, in which the player experiences a story from a first-person perspective.

To me this seems like a very refreshing break from the way that narrative construction is typically handled in games. It also increases playablilty - by making a much more diverse set of possible outcomes, you encourage the user to play again and again.

Unfortunately, it’s not available for Mac, yet, so I can’t tell if it sucks or not. it is, however, free.

This is the latest work I’ve done. It is the logo for the Competence Center Computational Culture. In the process I figured something out:

When working on a product there is something besides that strong and overwhelming inspiration which I want to call the “resonance within”. While the inspiration can be a very short and strong moment of clear view and truth the resonance is something more like feeling that the work that is be done, is done right. Is simply feels good. On the website from NYC-designer Sagmeister I found something very interesting according to this. He was asked about a method of coming of with ideas that he finds useful:

“Here is the method from James Webb Young:
1. Think about a project from any possible point of view. From yours, from your moms, from the clients, from a color, from a form etc.etc. point of view.
2. Write every thought down on its own index card. Fill as many cards as possible.
3. Gather them all on a big table. Try to find relationships between the different thoughts.
4. Forget about it.
5. Idea will strike you when you don’t expect it.”

This is the latest work I done. It is the logo for the Competence Center Computational Culture. In the process I figured something out:

When working on a product there is something besides that strong and overwhelming inspiration which I want to call the “resonance within”. While the inspiration can be a very short and strong moment of clear view and truth the resonance is something more like feeling that the work that is be done, is done right. Is simply feels good. On the website from NYC-designer Sagmeister I found something very interesting according to this. He was asked about a method of coming of with ideas that he finds useful:

“Here is the method from James Webb Young:
1. Think about a project from any possible point of view. From yours, from your moms, from the clients, from a color, from a form etc.etc. point of view.
2. Write every thought down on its own index card. Fill as many cards as possible.
3. Gather them all on a big table. Try to find relationships between the different thoughts.
4. Forget about it.
5. Idea will strike you when you don’t expect it.”

Well, ive been attempting to learn myself code in a proper way… using classes and things.

So I am continuing on with processing and learning C++ on the side.

Here is one of my first classes experiments… yes I know its pathetic, and youd think Id already know how to do this stuff, but I dont.
move the little box with your cursor keys…

link

Mi frase favorita de Creative Code (la traducción es mía):

…empecé a reconocer mis propias limitaciones como creativo, y decidí concentrarme en desarrollar mi carrera como profesor, con fragmentos de pensamiento concreto dejados por el camino como pequeñas señales de autoría.

Ser profesor o artista, programador o diseñador, técnico o creativo no es mejor ni peor que ninguna de la otras opciones. Conoce tus fortalezas y limitaciones y dedícate a lo que mejor sepas hacer.

Mi frase favorita de Creative Code (la traducción es mía):

…empecé a reconocer mis propias limitaciones como creativo, y decidí concentrarme en desarrollar mi carrera como profesor, con fragmentos de pensamiento concreto dejados por el camino como pequeñas señales de autoría.

Ser profesor o artista, programador o diseñador, técnico o creativo no es mejor ni peor que ninguna de la otras opciones. Conoce tus fortalezas y limitaciones y dedícate a lo que mejor sepas hacer.

Mi frase favorita de Creative Code (la traducción es mía):

…empecé a reconocer mis propias limitaciones como creativo, y decidí concentrarme en desarrollar mi carrera como profesor, con fragmentos de pensamiento concreto dejados por el camino como pequeñas señales de autoría.

Ser profesor o artista, programador o diseñador, técnico o creativo no es mejor ni peor que ninguna de la otras opciones. Conoce tus fortalezas y limitaciones y dedícate a lo que mejor sepas hacer.