Anthony Mattox Interaction Design + Digital Art

If you don’t know already, WordPress is kind of a big deal, and it’s about time i give it some credit. WordPress is a completely open source content management system. Being open source it is not only free for anyone to use, the source code is also visible and unencrypted making it easy for anyone which a little scripting knowledge to customize it, or use parts of it elsewhere. A content management system (cms) is a web interface which allows users to manipulate the content of a web site without having to write any code. Even for people who do know what their doing as far as building web pages this is a far better system than manually trying to write each page. I use WordPress for this website and for a few other pages I’m working on right now.

In addition to being free, the system is also very easy to use, and most importantly very well designed. Through the interface I can add or modify posts on my blog, upload images, create pages, manage my categories and links, comments, designs, and just about anything else the average blogger could ever want to do. There is even a visual editing mode (wysiwyg) allowing users to style the content of posts and pages without writing any html. Since WordPress is installed on your own server, although they also have their own hosting service now, you don’t have to worry about annoying ads and logos and a silly looking sub-domain as you would with a service like blogger. Read On »

Geometric fractals can be very visually interesting and aesthetically pleasing and are quite easy to understand and create, even just with pencil and paper. Computers make the process a bit easier though.
Within an object oriented programming environment

The process of creating such a fractal begins with a basic shape. In this illustration a line, but it could be a square, circle, arc, cube, or perhaps a bunny rabbit. Then we have the rule. Each iteration every instance of the initial object is replaced with the rule shape. Here a line is turned into a ‘Y’ and in each subsequent iteration all lines are turned into ‘Y’s as well. You can probably see quite quickly by using different rules geometric fractals can generate all sorts of shapes and textures. More possibilities are opened by adding more complex transformations, changing the scale, color, or any other property, limiting iteration to only certain shapes, adding random factors, and working in 3d environments.

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Using the time functions Processing can be used to create clocks. I enjoy making clocks as a simple exercise in design, interactivity, and simple data visualization. It’s also a horrible pastime as I am always aware of exactly how much time I’ve wasted. This demonstration will walk through creating this applet, showing the implementation of the time functions, the pushMatrix() and popMatrix() functions, modulo function (%), and the basic construction of an array of custom objects.

Like many key programming languages Processing is an Object Oriented Programming Language, sometimes referred to as an OOP. The concept might be a little bit hard to grasp for some, however, it is an invaluable tool which cuts down on script lengths and allows for far more interesting an complex programs without a lot of repetitive code. An “Object” (also called a class) is simply a collection of variables and functions. New instances of objects can be created with different values for all the variables and functions of the object can be easily executed to modify the instance. Although objects often have a graphical component or representation within a program it is important to remember that they are only collections of data and functions which can be manipulated in any way for whatever need. Another advantage is that a program, like this example, can contain arrays of objects, allowing them to all be changed within a “for loop”. The result is an elegant code which is very easy to construct and easier to edit.

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Processing is an open source programming language and environment developed for artists and designers to quickly and easily develop programs for any application. The language is java based, fairly easy to learn, even for the non-programmer, which includes many functions to create dynamic graphics. The environment allows for easy debugging of scripts, testing, and finally exporting of your programs to web applets or to an application for any operating system. And best of all Processing is completely free to download and very well documented, with definitions and examples for every function.

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