[PD] [OT] "processing" application

[mark edward grimm]

I find this all fascinating to think about...

I to was schooled in the US and with US methods.  It
was a private education (Jesuit) but subjects seldom
crossed disciplinary borders.

I was always interested in computers and art but never
really saw (or was educated in) how connections could
be made between the two..

Art was painting and drawing...

Math art was cheesy fractals...

Math itself was boring as hell...

I've been struggling these past few years trying to
catch up on my education by educating myself in math
so that i CAN do interactive arts. It is a major
struggle and I feel no natural ability in it - only
sore eyes..

I have been using pd for several years (mostly using
other peoples patches to manipulate audio - gran synth
etc) but have lately been creating my own
patch/programs (just got pd compiled and running on
linux!!)..

I am wondering about resources for artists that are
for 'post-mfa' artists who what to educate themselves
in the multimedia arts - artists who (unfortunately)
were taught the traditions of art (painting, drawing
sculpture) but yearn for something more
contemporary...

What the hell is a 'float' anyway? Can the definition
be summed up in a concise paragraph in laymen
terminology rather that computer/math academically
wrapped lingo?

BTW Are there math classes using pd to teach math and
bridge math and the arts in high-schools? it would be
an interesting research study for an educational
researcher no?

Sorry for the ramble I am just very interested in the
discussion...

cheers
mark

--- David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree that you will have to explain the difference
> to them at some
> point if they really try and do any serious project
> with Processing,
> and furthermore: if you want to learn basic
> programming, there's some
> minimum level of math that you need, or you just
> aren't going to
> succeed. Learning the difference between an integer
> and a float is
> precisely the kind of thing an introductory program
> SHOULD teach. I
> believe it is introduced on the first day of most
> any programming
> class, like "intro to java" or "intro to C++".
> 
> I guess the problem is more, that many artists hate
> math and never
> thought they would need it. And in the US, that's in
> many cases the
> fault of a horrible public school system. Even I,
> though I have
> reasonable mathematical skills, stopped doing math
> way too early (at
> beginning calculus) - because back then (12 years
> ago) I never knew
> I'd be doing digital audio that required more
> advanced math stuff. No
> math teacher ever mentioned that there might be
> direct musical
> applications for math, and besides, I was a jazz
> piano player back
> then.
> 
> It would be interesting to use PD to teach some math
> stuff actually -
> I'd like to see some kind of basic fft tutorial so I
> can explain
> Mathieu's posts on doing fft in PD, for instance!
> ;-)
> 
> ~David
> 
> On 10/13/06, Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>
> wrote:
> > On Thu, 12 Oct 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> >
> > > Also, I think they should have used a Number
> object instead of ints and
> > > floats, since its meant for people to learn
> programming.  Explaining
> > > what a float is to someone who barely does math
> is a pain in the ass.
> >
> > Eventually, even if you force people to use only
> floats, you still have to
> > explain how they work. It's just that at the level
> of teaching that you
> > do, you are able to sweep the topic under the
> carpet, and the carpet is
> > thick enough that you can pretend that there's no
> lump in it, until some
> > student stumbles upon it and breaks his/her jaw,
> but by that time you're
> > usually gone.
> >
> >   _ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________
> _____________________ ...
> > | Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 -
> http://artengine.ca/matju
> > | Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC
> Canada
> >
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____________________   
  mark edward grimm | m.f.a | ed.m    
  megrimm.net | socialmediagroup.org & .com   
  meg156 at columbia.edu | 585.509.8703
  ______________________________