Slides with presenter notes from the talk
Code and Creativity talk MIT IAP (pdf ~16mb)

At the end of the talk I live coded in Processing, here is an animated gif of the result

I’ll be giving a short lecture and doing some live coding exploring the nature of creativity in programmatic art projects. It will take place as part of the MIT Independent Activities Period (IAP) on Thursday January 15th 2015. It should be a lot of fun. If you are part of the MIT community you may sign up here.

What is the nature of creativity? What does a creative process in code look like? Just as an artist’s choice between physical mediums, like charcoal and oil paint, influences their final work, so does their choice between differing software systems. Through case studies and live experimentation, we will compare how our process changes depending on the design of particular pieces of software. We will look at Processing, Openframeworks, Nodebox, and others. We will learn how to assess and choose between different software systems when approaching a new creative project. Come explore how the design of programming languages & frameworks influences outcomes, both through conscious effort and happy accidents.

Andrew Ringler is a professional software developer and artist. He brings together performance, comedy, filmmaking, 2D arts, and code to create engaging experiences. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from McGill University and is now an MFA candidate at the Dynamic Media Institute of MassArt.