Processing is a programming environment designed by artist-designers, for artist-designers. It allows you to design and prototype for interaction on and off the screen, with multiple possibilities for input and output, and capabilities for video, sound, graphics, text, live and remote networking.
It's an open source platform, which means that for you it is free to use and alter. As a result, Processing is a highly collaborative, Do-it-yourself entity, where sharing examples and knowledge pushes the possibilities ever forward.
Here's a video of Ben Fry, one of Processing's two developers, introducing the platform as a space for designing information.
Most Processing users teach themselves. The website is setup to move you through a variety of tutorials, and the program itself comes with examples that are freely hacked and changed.
A collection of tutorials on Processing can be found here. We'll focus on mostly some of these examples.
A reference for all Processing commands can be found here.
We'll cover today:
void setup()
void draw()
size()
background()
stroke()
line()
point()
rect()
ellipse()
arc()
fill()
nofill()
float
void mousepressed()
for
random()
exporting and viewing
HOMEWORK: Using the methods we learned today, create an abstract composition that works well from at least two rest points for the mouse. No need to email it to me, just bring it to class.