Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art

landfill/), and Feed (www.potatoland.org/feed/). These projects, while technically
sophisticated and finely crafted, purposefully revealed the limitations, political implications,
and chaos of the Web. Shredder is an alternate browser that constructs web pages,
not as ordered predictable pages, but in Napier’s words, “as a chaotic, irrational, raucous
collage.” Besides the implicit politics and software engineering in pieces like Shredder and
another browser he developed called riot, one perceives an interest in the visual. These
algorithmically-generated pieces are chaotic—at times boisterous, but always aesthetically
engaging, informed by a trained painter’s eye. It is these opposing forces of the raw and
the refined that give Napier’s pieces their distinctive energy and appeal. Napier’s work is in
numerous major collections, including the Guggenheim in New York. He’s also had work
commissioned by both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art. His work has been shown widely, including at the Whitney
Biennial (2001), Ars Electronica, the Kitchen, ZKM net_condition, the Walker’s AEN show,
and many other venues and festivals around the world. Additional information, images,
and code can be found on Napier’s personal site, http://potatoland.org/.
John F. Simon Jr., b. 1963
John Simon combines a highly refined visual aesthetic with industrial grade coding skills.
He graduated from Brown in 1985 with degrees in studio art and geology, and then
received two more advanced degrees in earth and planetary science from Washington
University in St. Louis, and an MFA in computer art from the School of Visual Arts in New
York. His dual interests in analytical systems and aesthetics is almost always apparent in his
work. For example, in his “art appliances” software and LCD panels, 1998–2004, Simon sets
up algorithmically-based, complex software systems that examine abstraction vs. realism,
color theory, viewer perception, and other traditional painting concerns. The work often
has art historical connections and references (e.g., to Bauhaus, Klee, Kandinsky, Mondrian,
and Lewitt). Beyond Simon’s impressive software engineering skills and art historical
knowledge is a subtle, often poetic, aesthetic sensibility; many of his pieces are beautiful
objects. The work, both in concept and execution, is precise and economical. Simon
extends his work from the Web to handheld devices to wall-mounted integrated hardware/software
systems that he builds. He also produces software-driven laser-cut Plexiglas
objects. Simon is redefining how artists exist in the marketplace, pioneering the sale of
affordable works of art directly from his site, at http://numeral.com/.
John Maeda, b. 1966
John Maeda is currently the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Media Arts and
Sciences at MIT. He is also one of the most well-known designers and digital arts pioneers
in the world, awarded in 2001 both the US and Japan’s top design career honor: the
National Design Award and the Mainichi Design Prize—not bad for someone who recently
turned 40. Maeda’s work and teaching have had a profound impact on the digital design
landscape and, perhaps more than anyone else, Maeda has influenced the present generation
of code artists. Between 1996 and 2003, he directed the Aesthetics + Computation
Group (ACG) at MIT, which conducted research into the application of computer code and
computation as a primary creative medium. A number of Maeda’s students have become
leading designers/artists and (creative) technologists, including Golan Levin, Jared
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