Posts Tagged ‘code’
[NDCOslo2024] The History of Computer Art – Anders Norås
In the incandescent interstice of innovation and imagination, where algorithms awaken aesthetics, Anders Norås, a Norwegian designer and digital dreamer, traces the tantalizing trajectory of computer-generated creativity. From 1960s Silicon Valley’s psychedelic pixels to 2020s generative galleries, Anders animates an anthology of artistic audacity, where hackers harnessed harmonics and hobbyists honed holograms. His odyssey, opulent with optical illusions and ontological inquiries, unveils code as canvas, querying: when does datum dance into divinity?
Anders ambles from Bay Area’s beatnik bytes—LSD-laced labs birthing bitmap beauties—to 1970s fine artists’ foray into fractals. Vera Molnar’s algorithmic abstractions, Molnar’s mechanical marks, meld math with muse, manifesting minimalism’s machine-made magic.
Psychedelic Pixels: 1960s’ Subcultural Sparks
San Francisco’s hacker havens hummed with hallucinatory hacks: Ken Knowlton’s BEFLIX begat filmic fractals, A. Michael Noll’s noisy nudes nodded to neo-classics. Anders accentuates the alchemy: computers as collaborators, conjuring compositions that captivated cognoscenti.
Algorithmic Abstractions: 1970s’ Fine Art Fusion
Fine artists forayed into flux: Frieder Nake’s generative geometries, Georg Nees’s nested nests—exhibitions eclipsed elites, etching electronics into etudes. Harold Cohen’s AARON, an autonomous auteur, authored arabesques, blurring brushes and binaries.
Rebellious Renderings: 1980s’ Demoscene Dynamism
Demoscene’s defiant demos dazzled: Future Crew’s trance tunnels, Razor 1911’s ray-traced reveries—amateurs authored epics on 8-bits, echoing graffiti’s guerrilla glee. Anders applauds the anarchy: code as contraband, creativity’s clandestine cabal.
Digital Diaspora: Internet’s Infinite Installations
Web’s weave widened worlds: JODI’s jetset glitches, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s responsive realms—browsers birthed boundless biennales. Printouts prized: AARON auctions at astronomic asks, affirming artifacts’ allure.
Generative Galas: GenAI’s Grand Gesture
Anders assays AI’s ascent: Midjourney’s mirages, DALL-E’s dreams—yet decries detachment, Dolly’s depthless depictions devoid of dialogue. Jeff Wall’s “A Sudden Gust of Wind” juxtaposed: human heft versus heuristic haze, where context conceals critique.
Anders’s axiom: art awakens awareness—ideas ignite, irrespective of instrument. His entreaty: etch eternally, hand hewn, honoring humanity’s hallowed hue.
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[NDCOslo2024] Get Old, Go Slow, Write Code! – Tobias Modig
In the inexorable march toward maturity within the software realm, where velocity often eclipses wisdom, Tobias Modig, a veteran developer and agile enthusiast, delivers a defiant ode to senescence and serenity. With decades of debugging and deployment under his belt, Tobias dismantles the dread of obsolescence, championing the virtues of deliberate deliberation over frenetic fervor. His manifesto, infused with humor and historical homage, reframes aging as an asset, urging seasoned coders to linger in their craft, cultivating depth that outlasts the dash of youth.
Tobias sets the stage with three audacious aims: extol the merits of maturation, extol the elegance of unhurried execution, and exhort eternal engagement with the keyboard. He concedes the tribulations of tenure—framework flux, fledgling fluency—yet counters with conviction: the elder’s edge lies in equanimity, a measured mastery that millennials might mistake for malaise. Drawing from personal peregrinations, Tobias recounts races against rookies, where haste harvested hazards, while patience polished prowess.
Embracing Maturity: The Gifts of Graying Grace
Aging, Tobias asserts, accrues acuity: accumulated anecdotes afford anticipation of anomalies, sparing the squad from snafus. He invokes the Peter Principle’s peril—that of ascending to incompetence—warning against the siren song of supervisory seclusion. Developers, he declares, thrive in trenches, where tactile troubleshooting trumps theoretical tenure. His anecdote: a mid-career pivot to management, marred by monotony, until a return to roots reignited rapture.
Deliberation distinguishes the doyenne: novices navigate novelties nimbly, yet veterans vet viability, averting avoidable adventures. Tobias’s tenet: slowness safeguards sustainability, yielding code that’s not just correct but crafted with care, comprehensible to cohorts centuries hence.
Deliberate Deliberation: The Delights of Dawdling Development
Haste, Tobias laments, harbors hubris: crammed calendars court catastrophe, as unforeseen exigencies eclipse equilibrium. He likens laden ledgers to jammed junctions—a single snag spawns stalemates. His remedy: infuse interstices—unallocated intervals for introspection, ideation, or intercession—transforming tension into tranquility.
This tempo tempers teams: slack spaces spawn serendipity, where neighboring novices nurture under seasoned scrutiny, sans overtime’s overhang. Tobias’s triumph: a project propelled by pauses, where prototypes pondered yielded paradigms that persisted, proving premeditation’s primacy.
Perpetual Pursuit: Coding as Continuum
Tobias’s triad culminates in commitment: code ceaselessly, defying the drift to desks. He bewails the “developer lifecycle”—from coder to curator to custodian—as a cul-de-sac of creativity. His exhortation: evade elevation, or equilibrate it with engagements that endure—pairing, mentoring, moonlighting.
His horizon: harness hoariness as hegemony, letting longevity lead, as the world whirls while wisdom waits.