RE: [-empyre-] capacious processing

[Marius Watz <marius@unlekker.net>]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for an excellent review of Director and its strengths and failings. 
I have just one final comment before we leave the tools behind.

Processing is being developed by Ben Fry at MIT and Casey Reas at UCLA, 
along with a selection of other programmers. I've developed some libraries 
for it, but apart from that my involvement is simply that I use it to teach 
and that I am active in the community.

I think it is safe to say that Director has played a pivotal role in the 
history of media art. Many of my favourite electronic artists either cut 
their teeth or still continue to work using Director, producing works that 
astound me. It made interactivity and computation available to visual 
artists and designers at a point when the only alternative was command-line 
compilers.

I am frankly amazed at some of the work that has been created using 
Director, perhaps even more so because I could never get comfortable with 
it. Herein lies the rub: Different people think in different ways. Some 
will take to text-based programming languages like C++ or Java, others will 
excel at combined timeline/script environments like Director or Flash, 
while still others will use visual programming environments like Max/MSP or 
VVVV to create wonderful things.

My background in text-based programming gives me a strong prejudice. I love 
the purity of code, and I find it easy to express myself within it. To 
others it might be as useful as hitting your head with a brick. Some have 
argued that text-based code is the most "efficient" way of expressing 
computational concepts. I would have to disagree since that's only true for 
code-literate and code-minded people.

Ultimately, I like to use text-based code in my teaching because it jars 
the students out of their traditional ways of thinking. To draw a curve, 
you must specify the 4 x,y points of a Bezier segments, and so learn to 
think about how a curve actually works as an abstract concept. But when all 
is said and done, most of my students will return to the safety whathever 
other, non-text-based tools that serve them better.

But I'm very excited about teaching a workshop in VVVV later this spring, 
my first time teaching with a visual programming environment. That is sure 
to prove as much a challenge to my own skills as to the students.


Marius Watz - Amoeba / Unlekker
marius--at--unlekker.net

http://www.unlekker.net/
http://www.evolutionzone.com