art studio 22 | winter2009 | intermediate
advanced HTML/CSS plus
intro project TWOi [intermediate]: algorithms make art
Algorithmic Art - an explanatory report]
Look at the HTML source in this example, there's some simple HTML in the <body> [many <div> tags], and a lot of CSS in the <head> defining different classes for the <div> elements.
DIVweave: http://www.arts.ucsb.edu/faculty/budgett/classes/art22/DIVweave.html
I started with CSS classes for one vertical and one horizontal <div> tag and copied/pasted them many times altering name, postion, color, z-index, and opacity incrementally as I progressed.
That procedure resembles an ALGORITHM [or a set of instructions] and I was the computer-like agent for executing it. I could write down a plain English algorithm that you could follow to complete a similar outcome, that would be SOFTWARE and you would be like a computer executing it.
Part 1: Have fun using HTML 'div' tags [or other elements] to make 'visual events' [or formal visual art] in a browser window. Then, write an English Language algorithm for production of an abstract 'visual event' [on paper or other surface] that a human user can follow to a predictable or randomized outcome.
With a little Javascript and some math I could write an algorithm for a browser that would do this automatically and however many times I want [until I had used all the web palette colors for example].
example: Loopy Algorithm English [Lauren Rugge - not exactly simple English, some 'computer-speak']
Part 2: Exchange your English Language algorithm with someone else - execute their 'software' manually - scan or take a snapshot of the results - post the results alongside the algorithms [yours and theirs] to your website, link to them from your art 22 index page.
Then, try to automate a browser window visual event using DHTML [HTML/CSS/Javascript].
example: Loopy Algorithm Javascript [Lauren Rugge - hint: 'refresh' the page to see changes]
examples: Vanessa Zucker
examples: Matt Sherman ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR - FIVE
Learn coding and visualization with Processing [example: we feel fine]
On PCs use ultraEdit, on Macs use bbEdit or textwrangler, to write & upload your pages with [s]FT