Scripted tower [Creative coding for responsive environments]

<p>This thesis is based on investigating computational design methodologies for the generation of responsive environments, exploring the opportunities that creative coding and parametric based design approaches can offer architects of the 21st century. It is highly research focused with a test-case design formulated as an outcome of this research. Architecture has always evolved with history to remain a manifestation and reflection of society and the materials/tools available to the architects at the time. Today, technological advancements and computational techniques have redefined the agency of design methodologies and manifested a paradigmatic shift to the context and practice of architecture. Computationally mediated form finding techniques have rapidly evolved over the past twenty years and continue to advance the possibilities to generate new building forms and complex, responsive, and adaptive geometries. It is undeniable that within the last decade, digital technologies have begun to initiate a paramount ensemble of affordance that are reconfiguring design and design thinking. This research invites the possibilities of creative-code-based design systems, as this approach becomes more widely taken up and more confidently embedded into the design process by architects and designers across the globe. Scripting/coding is typically seen primarily as a productivity tool compared to its potential to assist design exploration however, the power of computationally mediated design does not lie in computer aided design (CAD) based work flows, but in the possibility to engage with algorithmic design processes that unite design with the computer; the difference between computerisation (CAD) and computation (scripting). This research investigates the potentials of a computational design methodology that integrates creative coding techniques for early-stage design approach. There are endless ways to utilise code-based processes for design; to begin, this research focuses on exploring a few common techniques, leading into a novel, innovative code that is context specific and locally and globally responsive. The nature of code is inherently open-source with digital files easily transferable and shared online. This poses prevalent current concerns surrounding topics of authorship, and generates speculations of how this may affect/contribute to the wider profession and the future of the architectural profession - another discourse addressed in this research. The outcome of this research process is tested through a system for a responsive tower design. The tower is highly speculative and is primarily concerned/focused on the innovative design process and, accordingly, the potentials for creative-code-based generative design in architecture. The tower is context specific to Wellington, embedding local wind data and immediate environmental conditions into the code, employing an emergent/generative design that could not have been prior conceived-of with the human mind alone. Developing on Carpo’s quote (page 10) further, this thesis builds upon this concept that there is meaning in employing digital design methodologies in such a way that allow for design developments which are unique, original, meaningful, and only possible because of the digital tools currently available to architects of the 21st century.</p>

Scripted tower [Creative coding for responsive environments]

<p>This thesis is based on investigating computational design methodologies for the generation of responsive environments, exploring the opportunities that creative coding and parametric based design approaches can offer architects of the 21st century. It is highly research focused with a test-case design formulated as an outcome of this research. Architecture has always evolved with history to remain a manifestation and reflection of society and the materials/tools available to the architects at the time. Today, technological advancements and computational techniques have redefined the agency of design methodologies and manifested a paradigmatic shift to the context and practice of architecture. Computationally mediated form finding techniques have rapidly evolved over the past twenty years and continue to advance the possibilities to generate new building forms and complex, responsive, and adaptive geometries. It is undeniable that within the last decade, digital technologies have begun to initiate a paramount ensemble of affordance that are reconfiguring design and design thinking. This research invites the possibilities of creative-code-based design systems, as this approach becomes more widely taken up and more confidently embedded into the design process by architects and designers across the globe. Scripting/coding is typically seen primarily as a productivity tool compared to its potential to assist design exploration however, the power of computationally mediated design does not lie in computer aided design (CAD) based work flows, but in the possibility to engage with algorithmic design processes that unite design with the computer; the difference between computerisation (CAD) and computation (scripting). This research investigates the potentials of a computational design methodology that integrates creative coding techniques for early-stage design approach. There are endless ways to utilise code-based processes for design; to begin, this research focuses on exploring a few common techniques, leading into a novel, innovative code that is context specific and locally and globally responsive. The nature of code is inherently open-source with digital files easily transferable and shared online. This poses prevalent current concerns surrounding topics of authorship, and generates speculations of how this may affect/contribute to the wider profession and the future of the architectural profession - another discourse addressed in this research. The outcome of this research process is tested through a system for a responsive tower design. The tower is highly speculative and is primarily concerned/focused on the innovative design process and, accordingly, the potentials for creative-code-based generative design in architecture. The tower is context specific to Wellington, embedding local wind data and immediate environmental conditions into the code, employing an emergent/generative design that could not have been prior conceived-of with the human mind alone. Developing on Carpo’s quote (page 10) further, this thesis builds upon this concept that there is meaning in employing digital design methodologies in such a way that allow for design developments which are unique, original, meaningful, and only possible because of the digital tools currently available to architects of the 21st century.</p>

Examining Young Children's Computational Artifacts

Computational thinking (CT), in line with the constructionist perspective, is often best displayed when children have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills by producing creative coding artifacts. Performance-based or project portfolio assessments of young children's coding artifacts are a rich and useful approach to explore how children develop and apply CT abilities. In this chapter, the authors examine various rubrics and assessment tools used to measure the levels of programming competency, creativity, and purposefulness displayed in students' coding artifacts. The authors then discuss the development of ScratchJr and KIBO project rubrics for researchers and educators, including examples to illustrate how these highly diverse projects provide insight into children's CT abilities. Finally, the authors conclude with implications and practical strategies for using rubrics in both educational and research settings.

Creative Coding as Compost(ing)

This chapter focuses on creative coding practices within a university-level art education context. Drawing from earlier literature and combining it with current research, the chapter takes a feminist approach to creative coding and examines the importance and possibilities of different code-related art educational practice in the post-digital world(ing)s. The chapter discusses how post-digital takes place and uses compost as a metaphor to look at post-digital art education practices. More specifically, it introduces three examples from courses taught at Aalto University that together form the digital compost: humus, care, and waste. The chapter closes with the discussion on further feminist approaches within post-digital within art education.

Rapid Composition for Networked Devices: HappyBrackets

This article introduces an open-source Java-based programming environment for creative coding of agglomerative systems using Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. Our software originally focused on digital signal processing of audio—including synthesis, sampling, granular sample playback, and a suite of basic effects—but composers now use it to interface with sensors and peripherals through general-purpose input/output and external networked systems. This article examines and addresses the strategies required to integrate novel embedded musical interfaces and creative coding paradigms through an IoT infrastructure. These include: the use of advanced tooling features of a professional integrated development environment as a composition or performance interface rather than just as a compiler; techniques to create media works using features such as autodetection of sensors; seamless and serverless communication among devices on the network; and uploading, updating, and running of new compositions to the device without interruption. Furthermore, we examined the difficulties many novice programmers experience when learning to write code, and we developed strategies to address these difficulties without restricting the potential available in the coding environment. We also examined and developed methods to monitor and debug devices over the network, allowing artists and programmers to set and retrieve current variable values to or from these devices during the performance and composition stages. Finally, we describe three types of art work that demonstrate how the software, called HappyBrackets, is being used in live-coding and dance performances, in interactive sound installations, and as an advanced composition and performance tool for multimedia works.