Computer Science | Grinnell College

At this Friday's CS Table/Algorithmic Arts session (at noon in Rosenfield 224A) we will discuss the relationship of computer art to some pre-computer approaches, particularly constructivism.

Our reading discusses the ways in which artists have attempted to forefront process and instructions in their work:

Wright, Richard. From System to Software: Computer Programming and the Death of Constructivist Art. In Brown, et al., eds. White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980.

Copies of the reading are available outside Professor Rebelsky's office (Noyce 3824). Please make sure to do the whole reading so that our discussion is productive. Jennelle will lead our discussion.

Since it's nearing fall break time, this Friday's CS Table/Algorithmic Arts session (at noon in Rosenfield 224A) will be comparatively laid back. We will explore a variety of historic pieces of digital arts from the collection of the Victoria and Albert museum and we will consider the second half of the semester (revisiting readings, getting volunteers to lead, etc.)

In preparation for the discussion, please review the images at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/CSC295/2012F/DigitalPioneers/. In addition, please review the class schedule at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/CSC295/2012F/Handouts/schedule.html.

Erik Opavsky will lead the discussion of images. Sam Rebelsky will lead the discussion of the schedule.

On Thursday, October 18, Dilan Ustek 2014, Aditi Roy 2013, Tolu Alabi 2013, Maijid Moujaled 2014, and David Cowden 2013 will discuss the technical internships they have done at Microsoft, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Pikuzone, and Iowa Health System. They will talk about their experiences at big technical companies, a start-up, and the IT department of a health organization. Come to learn about these various experiences and what to do in order to get them!

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Technical internships, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

This Friday at CS Table, we will discuss “live coding,” a form of performance art that typically involves sound, image, and visible code. (It's a bit more complex than that, as the readings suggest.) Jennelle and Colin will lead the the discussion.

The readings:

• Temporary Organisation for the Permanence of Live AudioVisual Programming, A Manifesto.
• Wang, G. and Cook, P. R. (2004). On-the-fly programming: using code as an expressive musical instrument. In Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, pages 138-143.
• Collins, Nick (2011). Live coding of Consequence. Leonardo 44 (3), pp. 207-211.

On Thursday, October 11, Professor Alberto Maria Segre of the University of Iowa will discuss recent work on modeling and analyzing the incidence and geographical distribution of disease in human populations:

Computational epidemiology lies at the intersection of computer science, engineering, statistics, and health care. Our goal is to inform public and hospital policy decisions on topics such as disease surveillance, disease prevention measures, and outbreak containment.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Computational epidemiology, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

This Friday at CS Table, we will discuss “Aesthetic Computing.” As the Aesthetic Computing Manifesto suggests, rather than applying computers to the arts, Aesthetic Computing attempts to apply aesthetics to computing. Chike and Radhika will lead our discussion.

We will read the introduction to an anthology on Aesthetic Computing:

Paul A Fishwick. 2006. Aesthetic Computing. Chapter 1 of Paul A. Fishwick (ed.) Aesthetic Computing, pp. 3-28. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

On Thursday, October 4, Jennelle Nystrom 2014 and Svea Drentlaw 2013 will discuss their summer work:

The Grinnell Livescripting Environment for Art and Music (GLEAM) is a Scheme library for the Microsoft Kinect camera that allows for collaboration between musicians and programmers. As a musician gestures, the programmer modifies how their gestures will affect the musical production in real time. In this Extra, we will discuss our work on GLEAM this summer and provide a short demo with the Kinect.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, GLEAM: the Grinnell Livescripting Environment for Art and Music, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

On Thursday, September 27, Professor Sam Rebelsky will discuss the emphasis on the algorithmic construction and transformation of graphic images in our CSC 151 course:

We have transformed the introductory course in computer science to emphasize the construction and manipulation of images. Students work with a drawing application, creating images by hand and with “scripts.”

The capstone project for the course is A Procedure is Worth 1000 Pictures, in which students write a program that, given a width and height, can generate one thousand different but related images that meet particular guidelines. The project must meet both studio and computer science design criteria. We do studio critiques of both the aesthetic and computational aspects of the projects.

We are exploring ways to have students in this course collaborate with students in the introductory studio art course. One approach builds on a Modular Print project in the studio art course in which students build a square block that they then print in multiple rotations to achieve a more complex image. For the bridge activity, we expect that studio students can propose basic arrangements of the blocks, and CS students can build a program that helps the art students explore the design spaces those arrangements suggest.

Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk, Algorithmic arts: bridging computer science and studio art, will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

This week in Algorithmic Arts / CS Table, we will read part of a report from the National Academy of Sciences on the role of computers in creative practice:

Mitchell, William J., Inouye, Alan S., and Blumental, Marjory S., Eds. (2003). Creative Practices. Chapter 2 of Beyond Productivity: Information Technology, Innovation, and Creativity.

Algorithmic arts reading list

This week in Algorithmic Arts/CS Table (Friday, September 14, at noon, in Rosenfield 224A), we will read Matt Pearson's introduction to his book on generative art:

Pearson, Matt (2011). Introduction to Generative Art. Manning.

You can find the introduction online at http://www.manning.com/pearson/GenArt-Sample-Intro.pdf, and find out more about the book at http://www.manning.com/pearson/.

Adriana and Max will lead our discussion.

Remember that you can always find the readings list online at http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~rebelsky/Courses/CSC295/2012F/Handouts/schedule.html.