float processing(); Parag Chitale S1401104
This document is an attempt to channelise the on-going and non-lasting flow of emotions experienced by Parag Chitale, a first year post-graduate student of Graphic Design from the National Institute of Design, through self-taught Generative Art. 14 October 2014
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Processing. Actually it all began when I decided to get into design field and my visits to www.nid.edu became more and more frequent. There was a portfolio of a graphic design student named ‘Akshan Ish’. While going through his work I found something very interesting, a project named ‘Re-Generate’. It was something that I had never seen before. I had absolutely no idea why and how he had done that, the only thing I was sure about was, “One day, I am going to do that!”
After completing my computer engineering, I joined ‘Graphic Design’ at the National Institute of Design . Coming from a very technical academic background, the readily available intense freedom was quite overwhelming. I was a little startled by it actually! I needed something familiar, something to hold on to. And one fine day, I was introduced to ‘Processing Language’ by a product design student, ‘Sahil Thappa’, who is very enthusiastic about generative art himself. All my agitation and a kind of homesickness that was starting to build up faded away in a moment, for I had found this path to peace, a way to be weightless and an anchor for my thoughts. Exploring various aspects of visual imagery through ‘processing’ has helped me to find a perfect way of implementing technical knowledge through expressive art. Glad to be happy.
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hough I haven’t had any interaction about generative art (to be frank any interaction at all) with any of them, I am very grateful to Akshan and Sahil for introducing me to generative art. I am looking forward to use this new found medium as a tool of visual interpretation and an aid for crucial stages in social betterment.
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he new phase in my life, the brand new experience of being in a design school was very exciting. Meeting people from a varied cultures and socio-academic backgrounds, getting introduced to new aspects of design was a thrilling experience. For the first two three weeks I was smiling like a madman. People even asked me why I was smiling! I used to tell them, “It’s because I am extremely happy. That’s it.” And it was true!
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As our foundation courses were going on, I started to build my foundation for ‘processing’. KMC is a blessing for hungry minds, truly! You can learn almost everything about art and design and the science behind it. I started brushing up on my JAVA skills, which is the programming language used as a base for building the Processing Development Environment. JAVA being a very high level language gives you benefits such as making your own data types and using them as per your requirement. It gives you freedom to get things done just the way you want them to be. I learned and discovered many functions in ‘processing’ and their working strategies. Going back to the basics helps you build confidence and then only you can go all the way.
Processing gives us a way to design interactive environments. The very surreal nature and the precise placements of the elements in a design make the visual very interesting. Use of this platform in interaction and new media design has proven its immense capability to materialise and interpret complex ideas through data visualization.
There are two basic functions of Processing, setup() and draw(). setup() gives us space in which you can describe the preliminary parameters that are to be used throughout the execution. This part of the program decides the size of the window, the quality of lines, the rendering style to be used and the frame rate to be used. It gives direction to the rest of the program flow, just as the orientation program that we had in our first week! I had made up a lot such analogies along the way, just letting you know beforehand!
The function draw() is the one in which we actually create the visual. We can use predefined functions for drawing points, lines, ellipses, quadrilaterals in this function. This function repeats its execution till we close the program window unless we explicitly state it not to. I started with the initial examples on the website www.processing.org. I wanted to learn the concepts behind those examples and so I started reading a really well-written book by ‘Ira Greenberg’ titled ‘Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art’. This book is the one which I think every generative art enthusiast must read. The very informal and conversational treatment to the text makes the subject very interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the exciting time in NID when I used to run up to KMC after the regular classes and read this book. I have always been interested in the extra-curricular activities. Processing was my new found hobby and I am still discovering new things and having a lot of fun with it.
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ridging the gap between “should I?” and “Sure.” becomes very easy when your first step leads you to the right path. I still remember the moment when I had my first good output, I was so happy that I clicked a selfie! It was surreal. I had done something which I had never done before. I was learning something new and as my own guide, I can tell you, I was doing well! I was getting familiar with the campus of NID, the map of Ahmedabad and making new friends in this extravaganza of cultural diversity. This new direction to my life was simply overwhelming.
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In the fundamental of visual design course, we were asked to write the reasons why did we come to NID. It was a wonderful experiment that helped us to refresh our mind and understand the gravity of the situation and start taking up opportunities for good. My journey in the generative art was going slow and steady. After quite a few successful explorations with simple examples, I felt comfortable with the programming environment. Now I wanted to do something more. I have had enough fun playing with the “random� function and amusing myself with the results.
I began my search for other areas in which I can try to do some visual representation. Sometimes the very first that enters your mind stays there for a long time. The same thing happened to me. I had thought about creating mathematical curves with the simple functions of point and lines. This idea turned out to be really impressive ultimately.
Sometimes I wonder if sine and cosine functions were not there, life would have been crazy. These functions give some stable rhythm to this unpredictable world. The sort of systematic rhythm I was trying to establish in my adventurous life. To be frank, the final sequence was “Go to college, enjoy the study time, Come home, Miss college, Sleep, Wake up, Go to College again, be happy” I was still getting used to the high paced schedule of information gathering at NID. Generally I used to go home after my college before coming here, but here somehow the college was more of a home than my room. The excitement which is overflowing through the walls of this institute just can’t let you stop for a bit. Without your knowledge you keep working, exploring, creating something new. It happens. The same you, who used to just adsorb onto something for information, now starts to absorb the knowledge. You become a little droplet that one day is going to help a tiny seed to grow into a tree.
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he experiences you get change the course of your life. They leave a prominent impression on you that you can not wipe off and most interestingly we do not want to wipe them off. We cherish them as memories. These memories seep deep into us and affect our decisions. The decisions we take are never instantaneous new decisions, unknowingly you check into your memories and select the closest scenario to the present and select the good option as your decision. This association of situations and memories can bring greatest joy into our lives. The visual association works in the same way. The memories we have are often more visual and impactful.
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To be a designer, you have to be sensitive. There are hundreds of things happening around you and you overlook a large portion of it. I started to pay attention to details, as these are the things which lead you to a problem or a solution, you never know. Everything in which you are participating is teaching you something. If you are aware of the opportunity, then you’ll get it. I understood this when I started to reflect on my day, before sleeping. Sometimes the interconnection of thoughts becomes so dense than you feel tired just thinking. The process of going back let me realise my mistakes and helped me to take better road the next time. You should pick up each stone on your road because in the end, these little stones are going to help you build a bridge.
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Each celebration has a different kind of attitude and an aura of their own. For me, the first Graba at NID was an explosion of colours and enthusiasm. I, the one who used to change the route watching people dance, danced a lot in the celebration. The moment of selfrevelation was quite amusing. If you try you can do almost everything. Yes. Everything.
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e always want ‘something more’ than what we have done. The thirst of that extra something is unquenchable I guess. When everything is working very nicely, everything is going well there comes a moment when you are feeling content. When you acknowledge the fact that you are happy you feel empty and need ‘something more’. I have hardly seen a person who is completely happy with what he has done. We sometimes realise that we have misjudged our strengths and then we feel an urge to prove our capacity to none other than ourselves. We get a direction to work towards.
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18 Working in generative art is almost addictive. The instant results purely based on your program and your input encourage you to do something more. After exploring the basic two dimensions my mind started wondering about the third one. Though I haven’t yet actually worked in the third dimension, the illusion of a third dimension was surely a great fun to create. I started with mathematical functions based on the sine and cosine curves. And as I moved ahead, I introduced the interactive parameter in the function. We should be able to create our own visual compositions at run time. If one can, then everybody can. The joy of creation is much more when the creation is not surrounded by any mystery. The shear happiness of creating something of your own, no matter how small it is, is priceless.
The interdisciplinary environment of NID develops interest in different fields and encourages you to learn new things. I am highly motivated to learn the various methodologies and techniques in different departments. My friends from Ceramic and Glass design were working on forms in three dimensions. The textile friends were learning about yarns and fabrics. Product designers were studying rendering softwares. The influence of each of these fields was directing me in multiple directions. Every single thing happening was exciting and every single second was a learning moment for me. The influence of tactile experience was the most prominent. I tried to manipulate different curves to create fabric like structures. The smoothness of the yarn is particularly eye catching. I was and I am still tangled.
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he journey till now has been amazing. All the explorations and adventurous try outs were self-guided. The ups and downs, have taught me a lot. Now is the time to take some dedicated time and give focused attention to this engaging venture. This term Generative Art itself creates an abstract visual and the contextual interpretation of the term changes its form. It has happened with me. Generative art was an unknown word, then a word of interest, an interesting study subject and then a challenge. I am hoping to turn it into a tool of choice, the transition I am working on.
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