Casey Reas

Stimulus/Response: An Introduction to Computer Programming for Artists

Course Description
This course is an introduction to the concepts and principles of interactivity. The workshop focuses on the required skills for creating interactive work; therefore, participants will work toward developing their computer programming skills. The concepts and skills taught will enhance each participant's ability to think about the Internet, interactive media, installation, and computer games. In this workshop, participants will use the Processing environment (http://processing.org) to learn the basics of software development in relation to the visual arts.

Skill Level
Participants should be comfortable using computers but do not need any prior experience with computer programming.

Artist's Biography
At the dawn of the present millennium, C.E.B. Reas was a graduate student and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's notorious Media Lab. After twenty-eight years of drawing, playing video games, drumming, and designing information systems, his nascent talent for writing software forged these disparate interests into a new path. After graduating, Reas began to exhibit his software and installations internationally in galleries and festivals. Reas employs ideas explored in conceptual and minimal artworks as focused through the contemporary lens of software. Reas' software and images are derived from short text instructions explaining processes which define networks. The instructions are expressed in different media including natural language, machine code, computer simulations, and static images. Each translation reveals a different perspective on the process and combines with the others to form a more complete representation.