Computer Science | Grinnell College

On Thursday, May 2, Colin Brooks 2013 will speak on “Generative art and the computer collaborator.” Refreshments will be served at 4:15 p.m. in the Computer Science Commons (Noyce 3817). The talk will follow at 4:30 p.m. in Noyce 3821. Everyone is welcome to attend!

At this Friday's CS Table/Algorithmic Arts session (at noon in Rosenfield 224A) we will consider some basic issues in Evolutionary Art, art which is generated by genetic-like processes. Our reading this week is

Lewis, Matthew (2008). Evolutionary visual art and design. In Romero and Machado (eds.), The art of artificial evolution: a handbook of evolutionary art and music.

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. Spencer and Chike will lead the discussion.

This Friday at Algorithmic Arts (+ CS Table), we will consider some portions of John Maeda's book Design by numbers, which provides a simple programming language for artists.

Meada, John (1999). Design by numbers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

The sections include the preface and introduction, a chapter on repetition, and two chapters on dots. There are also a number of images from the book.

For folks who haven't been to CS table lately, this reading gives us some opportunity to talk about language design issues as well as artistic issues.

Copies of the readings are available outside Professor Rebelsky's office. Kate and Tolu will lead our discussion and have asked participants to consider the following questions:

• How might you create the images from the book (not the ones with the accompanying code)?
• What's the smallest set of functions you would need to make these images?

At this Friday's CS Table/Algorithmic Arts session (at noon in Rosenfield 224A) we will consider some writings by a variety of early practitioners of computer art, published as the art was actually being produced. These articles are taken from

Rosen, Margit, Ed. (2011). A little-known story about a movement, a magazine, and the computer's arrival in art: new tendencies and Bit international, 1961-1973.

• Franke, Herbert W. (orig. 1971, translation 2011). Social aspects of computer art (pp. 435-437).
• Morellet, Francois (orig. 1962, translation 2011). The case for programmed experimental painting (pp. 92-93).
• Munari, Bruno (orig. 1964, reprinted 2011). Arte programmata (p. 176).
• Nake, Frieder (orig. 1968). There should be no computer art (pp. 466-467).
• Nees, Georg (orig. 1968, translation 2011). Computer graphics and visual translations (pp. 320-325).

Copies of the readings are available outside Professor Rebelsky's office (Noyce 3824). Please complete the reading in advance so that our discussion is productive. Colin and Sinan will lead our discussion.

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.

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.

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, 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