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A system for discussing art-related code (Read 791 times)
A system for discussing art-related code
Aug 11th, 2007, 4:02pm
 
This isn't exactly about Processing but relates to open-source art-coding. Since, by default, Processing generates web applications with a link to the source-code, I'm hoping that this project will appeal to the Processing community.

I've been working on a chat system to facilitate open discussion between artists about code. Right now, I'm running a trial version at http://pallit.lhi.is/~palli/codechat

Soon, I'll be releasing the system under the GPL so that others can use it to generate discussions around their own code. My reason for doing this is that I feel it's important to provide the general public with a means for following code-related discussions between artist-coders so that they can get a sense of various conceptual and/or aesthetic implications of coding methods and practices. We can't expect everyone to be able to understand the code itself, but if they have access to discussions between coders, they may be able to develop a deeper understanding of the work through the code.

Pall Thayer
Re: A system for discussing art-related code
Reply #1 - Aug 14th, 2007, 4:55pm
 
The source code is now available for the CodeChat system. I think the Processing community would be the perfect community to attempt to adopt and spread the practice of encouraging the type of discussion and debate that CodeChat is intended to encourage, especially since the default for Processing is to produce a webpage with a link to the source code. So why not setup a CodeChat for the source as well? It wouldn't hurt. All you need is webspace with PHP support and access to a MySQL database. Oh, and Perl to generate the discussion webpage.

The source is available at http://pallit.lhi.is/~palli/codechat

The reason I'm pushing this so hard is that I feel very strongly that this is the type of thing that is needed to foster more in-depth examination of the type of artwork we art-coders are producing. When you read an article on an artist working with more traditional media in, say, Parkette or ArtForum, you always see an examination of both the methods and the conceptual implications of the artwork itself in an attempt to gain a deep understanding of the artist's work. We get, at best, a superficial examination of the initial effects that the work has upon the viewer with little or no concern for the methods employed, which is, in a way, understandable because the art world doesn't know how to examine or talk about code and its implications. A system like CodeChat is a way of allowing us to discuss each others work at this level in a way that the theorists and other writers/viewers etc. are able to read through such comments and perhaps learn to examine code and its conceptual and aesthetic implications.

I've also set up a CodeChat page for the Processing applet element of my piece On Everything at:

http://pallit.lhi.is/~palli/codechat/oneverythingcc2/applet.php

On Everything itself is at:

http://pallit.lhi.is/on_everything
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