Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art

PROCESSING: CREATIVE CODING AND COMPUTATIONAL ART
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Schiffman, and of course Casey Reas and Ben Fry. ACG was an outgrowth of an earlier
research group at MIT called the Visual Language Workshop (VLW), created in 1973. VLW
was created by Muriel Cooper and Ron MacNeil. Muriel Cooper was a renowned designer,
like Maeda, who became interested in applying artificial intelligence to the traditional
design process. In 2003, Maeda changed directions, transforming ACG into the Physical
Language Workshop (PLW), a design-oriented group that according to the site overview,
http://plw.media.mit.edu/, “designs tools for creating digital content in a networked
environment, and the means by which the content can be leveraged as creative capital
within an experimental online micro-economy that we call OpenAtelier.” For Maeda, PLW
was a return to the core ideas in Muriel Cooper’s VLW.
In addition, Maeda codirects SIMPLICITY, a new media lab–wide research initiative aimed
at redefining users’ relationships with technology in their daily lives. This statement on the
SIMPLICITY site says it all: “How do you make something powerful, but simple to operate
at the same time? This is the challenge.” Maeda’s extraordinary range of talents and his
critical approach to the development and implementation of technology in our daily lives
have contributed to him being included in Esquire’s 1999 list of the 21 most important
people of the 21st century. Here are some links to learn more about Maeda and view his
work: www.maedastudio.com/index.php, www.media.mit.edu/people/bio_maeda.html,
and http://weblogs.media.mit.edu/SIMPLICITY/.
Mary Flanagan, b. 1969
Mary Flanagan is an artist, producer, designer, technologist, activist, writer, and theorist,
and her work reflects an integration of all these interests. Her multidimensional projects
are created primarily for the Net or installation, and thematically involve the influence of
technology—net.culture, computer gaming, and mundane technological tools—on our
daily lives. Flanagan offers a fresh, alternative voice, inspiring through her work underrepresented
populations to cross the digital divide. Prior to her academic appointments,
Flanagan spent a number of years working at Human Code, an Austin-based software
developer. Although she was a highly regarded and award-winning producer and designer
within the gaming industry, she was frustrated by the lack of titles being developed for
girls and minorities, so she left the industry for academia to pursue her social activist/artistic
vision. Two projects she has since developed directly address this concern. The
Adventures of Josie True (www.maryflanagan.com/josie/) is the first web-based adventure
game for girls. The game’s characters include Josie, an 11-year-old Chinese-American
girl; a female African-American aviator called Bessie Coleman; and Josie's science teacher,
Ms. Trombone, who is also an inventor. Flanagan is also involved in the development of a
collaborative and highly ambitious project: RAPUNSEL (www.maryflanagan.com/rapunsel/).
The RAPUNSEL project team is made up of a number of leading computer scientists,
artists, and educational theorists who are researching and building a software environment
to teach programming concepts to kids. Ultimately, RAPUNSEL will become a multiuser 3D
game to teach middle school girls computer programming. Flanagan’s work has been
exhibited internationally at museums, festivals, and galleries, including the Guggenheim,
the Whitney Museum of American Art, SIGGRAPH, the Banff Centre, the Moving Image
Centre in New Zealand, the Central Fine Arts Gallery in New York, Artists Space in New
York, the University of Arizona, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and many other international
venues. Her essays on digital art, cyberculture, and gaming have appeared in