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COD 207 Creative Coding I

10 min read

Some of the contents in Selected Creative Coding Assignments will move here in order to keep everything organized.

Check the following content for case studies!

Labs | Art and Interaction Computing
Creative Coding Projects

Introduction

COD 207 Creative Coding I is a foundational course designed to introduce students to the essential principles of programming within the realm of creative coding. Through hands-on experiences with algorithmic art practices, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental concepts that underlie this innovative field.

Course Objectives:

  • Develop Programming Fundamentals: Students will learn the basic syntax and structure of programming languages, focusing on problem-solving skills and logical thinking.
  • Explore Algorithmic Art Practices: Through interactive exercises and projects, students will delve into the world of algorithmic art, understanding how to create visually striking and dynamic visualizations using code.
  • Apply Creative Coding Principles: By applying creative coding principles to real-world scenarios, students will develop a unique perspective on problem-solving and artistic expression.

Office Hours

Refer to the following link. Create a request. I will provide you the details. Booking link

COD 207 2025-2026 Presentations

Selected Student Works Show

Course Content:

Week 1: Introduction to Creative Coding

  • Why do I need to learn programming? Interview with Ali Nesin
  • Overview of programming languages (Python, JavaScript, etc.)
  • What is Creative Coding? Present artists

  • Pre-survey ALAP

Things to Discuss

This discussion session aims to present basics of Computational Thinking principles. The practices are chosen in order to align with the undergraduate student major. Since design students are visual learners, the tenets of CT are contextualized to provide visual aids and analogies depending on student’s known practices.

1. Abstraction
Abstraction is crucial in order to reveal the core of the problem. The abstraction process eliminates the unnecessary data and help the designer to focus on the major task to solve the problem.

Procedural Flow
This step is crucial for determining the clean and precise instructions to solve a problem.
Suppose that you instruct your intern about how to use Adobe Photoshop.

Write down step-by-step instructions precisely for the following tasks;

  • How to create a 800 x 800 px sized, 72 DPI resolution canvas using Photoshop on Mac or Windows operating system.
  • How

Week 2: Algorithmic Art Database

When the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

  • Keep mails short and readable
  • Don’t expect answer on weekends and after 5 pm

Week 3: Computational Thinking

  • Artist of the week Char Stiles Keynote speech on Creative Coding Fest.

Week 4:

  • Inspiration of the week - Ali Nesin
  • Artist of the week -
  • Understanding the role of randomness and chance in creative coding
  • Applying generative principles to create dynamic visuals
  • Introduction to machine learning and neural networks in creative coding

Course Assessment:

  • Quizzes and Assignments: Regular quizzes and assignments will test students’ understanding of programming fundamentals and algorithmic art practices.
  • Project-Based Evaluation: A final project will assess students’ ability to apply creative coding principles to a real-world scenario or artistic expression.

Target Audience:

COD 207 Creative Coding I is designed for students with little to no prior experience in programming. This course provides an ideal introduction to the world of creative coding, making it accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

Articles & Tutorials

Decontextualize blog includes several programming concepts from beginner to intermediate levels for novices.

List of colors and their meaning, article

Transformation

Inspiration & Showcases

Pre-computer Era

Hilma af Klint - Wikipedia

Kazimir Malevich - Wikipedia

Piet Mondrian - Wikipedia

Wassily Kandinsky - Wikipedia

Generative Art

REAS.com is a database for Casey REAS

Mokafolio – Weird Faces

Mokafolio – Regurgitating

aBe - Ink waves decoded Plotter-based art.

Reza Ali

Suskia Freeke - Daily Art In “Two Years Making Daily Art,” @sasj_nl reflects on their transformative journey of creating art daily for two years. The author highlights how this consistent practice significantly improved their artistic skills, helped them overcome perfectionism, and allowed them to embrace imperfection and experimentation. Key takeaways include fostering creative discipline, discovering a personal style, using art as a form of mindfulness, and emphasizing that the most important aspect is showing up consistently rather than striving for perfect results. The experience ultimately built both technical ability and mental resilience.

Tyler Hobbs - Fidenza

Feral File NFT art gallery

b2renger - Grids galore! Experiments with p5js on pattern, generative and grid design

Datavis

Wind Map Showcases wind map in an interactive way in US.

Fathom Information Design A company focuses on data visualization.

THE PROJECT — Dear Data Each week, and for a year, we collected and measured a particular type of data about our lives, used this data to make a drawing on a postcard-sized sheet of paper, and then dropped the postcard in an English

Crowdsourcing

Bicyle Built For Two Thousand

Fleshmap: Touch

Installations

Keyfleas – Interactive augmented projection by Miles Peyton represented at CreativeApplications.Net

[Official] teamLab Borderless TOKYO, Azabudai Hills

Fabrication

Nervous System

Filament Sculptures – LIA

Wanderers – Digitally grown 3d printed wearables that could embed living matter – CreativeApplications.Net

Tactum — MADLAB.CC Design 3D items for yourself on your body.

Iridescence · Behnaz Farahi The custom-made quills flip their colors and start to make patterns, in response to the movement of onlookers and their facial expressions. physicalComputing

Alicia Eggert physicalComputing

Motion Graphics

Individuation – Robert Hodgin

Painting with Watercolours using openFrameworks FBO – Kenichi Yoneda (Kynd) – CreativeApplications.Net

Projection

swoosh

Projects – Studio Lemercier

advection | robert seidel | projection on a water fountain | lichtsicht biennale 2013/2014

OMOTE / REAL-TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING

Title Unavailable | Site Unreachable

Wooden Drum ‱ Patrik HĂŒbner - Generative Design and Creative Coding for brands

NOTA BENE Visual | Digital Experiences

Delicate Boundaries – Chris Sugrue

Performance

Superposition—5.84 Quintillion Facets of the Digital Sublime – CreativeApplications.Net, Ryoji Ikeda

discrete figures -ELEVENPLAY×Rhizomatiks Research×Kyle McDonald

DeepTalking - Tiri Kananuruk | Tiri Kananuruk

Apparition, Part 1 (2004) – Klaus Obermaier & Ars Electronica Futurelab - YouTube

S20 Hiroaki Umeda

Kekko Fornarelli - CHRYSALIS | The Performance - YouTube

Primary Assembly physicalComputing

Public Domain & Intervention

About | F.A.T. The Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab is an organization focused on enhancing the public domain by researching and developing technologies and media. They emphasize releasing their work early, frequently, and with rap music.

THEORY - Face to Facebook (2012) Social networking platforms like Facebook are inherently addictive, capitalizing on our innate desire for connection and self-positioning by creating an “eternal party” where users constantly update their virtual identities. While these private corporations profit immensely from this “crowdsourced targeting” of user data, especially our public-facing profile pictures, this system also exposes individuals to significant risks like identity theft and re-contextualization of personal data, ultimately revealing the inherent fragility of virtual identities and the unsustainable economic model built upon their exploitation.

Graffiti Research Lab (2009) “Art is a tool of empowerment and social change, and I consider myself blessed to be able to create and use my work to promote health reform, bring awareness about ALS and help others.” ~ Tempt One

Zoom Escaper Online meeting jammer.

Sound & Music

Hatnote Listen to Wikipedia This system provides an interactive audio-visual representation of Wikipedia’s recent changes: bells signal additions, string plucks indicate subtractions, and pitch reflects edit size. Green circles denote unregistered users, purple circles mark bot edits, and a string swell announces new users, who can be welcomed via a clickable blue banner.

Sound Affects performance A duo performance. Sound generated via face mimics and heartbeat.

Symphonies of the Planets Sound composition according to planet orbits.

Sidewalk Orchestra Motion detection on camera images trigger sound samples to create experimental musical composition.

Patatap - Artistic & Studio Work of Jono Patatap, real-time audio-visual instrument available on the web and the App Store. On computer click on the screen and then tap any key on your keyboard.

TONECRAFT BY DINAHMOE-Transforming silence into unappreciated effort. A 3D sequencer for musical composition by DINAHMOE

ÜBERVIZ The studio builds custom real-time audio-reactive music visualizers, using web technologies such as WebGL, Web Audio, and custom GLSL shaders. They also build live concert visuals and interactive installations.

Typography

Reconstitution Transforming political debates into an immersive experience that revealed hidden patterns and deepened civic engagement. by SOSO Limited Studio.

Text Player An original installation by MarĂ­a GĂŒell, and LA INVISIBLE Lighting Design Studio. MoebiusSurfing coded a C++ tool to layout and animate text files and render the used videos.

the html review 04 An online experimental journal.

THE EXPERIMENT IS DEMOCRACY. FASCISM IS THE CONTROL. Kinetic typography by YOUNG-HAE CHANG.

Schultzschultz - Design studio from Frankfurt Touchography, early prototype, instagram post, post2

OpenCv

Augmented Hand Series - Interactive Art by Golan Levin and Collaborators (2014), The “Augmented Hand Series” by Golan Levin, Chris Sugrue, and Kyle McDonald is a real-time interactive software system that transforms visitors’ hands. Users insert their hand into a box, and a screen displays a ‘reimagined’ version, such as one with an extra finger or autonomously moving fingers, creating playful, dreamlike, or uncanny effects. Critically, these are “hand-aware” visualizations that operate within the logical structure of the hand, fundamentally altering its deep appearance rather than just applying superficial changes.

Face Substitution (2012)

The Coded Gaze: Unmasking Algorithmic Bias - YouTube (2017)

Investigations ← Forensic Architecture (2019)

AI

Hypertext / early net.art

More recent net art

GIFs, animations, glitch, video

Other

History

Company & Studio

Graph View