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Software
I created Design By Numbers during in a time when getting artists and designers to program the computer was just beginning to become in vogue. I spent most of the earlier half of the 1990's espousing the importance of getting beyond the tools, and into the medium of programming itself. Working on Design By Numbers was a kind of revelation for me. I realized how uninteresting it is to program. The actual point of the book was to get more non-programmers to program as a means to hopefully realize how boring programming can be. And then to re-imagine, re-envision, and realize a superior form of programming for the non-mathematically inclined.The then voluntary caretakers of the DBN system, Ben Fry and Casey Reas felt that they had the right designs for a new solution. It is called "Processing." And it is still going strong today in a way that continues to pleasantly astound me.
There are no new developments around DBN for now, but I expect it will come back within the next few years ... to be reborn into a new system we have under development in my research group at MIT.
Descriptions & Essays
I created Design By Numbers during in a time when getting artists and designers to program the computer was just beginning to become in vogue. I spent most of the earlier half of the 1990's espousing the importance of getting beyond the tools, and into the medium of programming itself. Working on Design By Numbers was a kind of revelation for me. I realized how uninteresting it is to program. The actual point of the book was to get more non-programmers to program as a means to hopefully realize how boring programming can be. And then to re-imagine, re-envision, and realize a superior form of programming for the non-mathematically inclined.
Literature
Beddard, Honor and Douglas Dodds. V and A Pattern: Digital Pioneers. London: V and A Publishing, 2009.
Onedotzero. Motion Blur 2: Multidimensional Moving Imagemakers. London, UK: Laurence King Publishing, 2009.
Catherine Mason. A Computer in the Art Room: The Origins of British Computer Arts
1950-1980. Norfolk, UK: JJG Publishing, 2008.
Maeda, John. The Laws of Simplicity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
Onedotzero. Motion Blur: Graphic Moving Imagemakers Publishers. London, UK: Laurence King Publishers, 2006.
Exhibitions & Events