( den folgenden text hab ich mal zusammen mit jacob remin geschrieben )
in recent years programming has not only become an everyday tool for interaction designers but also a material in itself.
on the one hand we have seen tools emerge that made it really easy for designers and artists to engage with programming and scripting ( e.g. P5.js, Processing.org, Arduino.cc but also Adobe Illustrator, Rhino3D and IFTTT etc. ). on the other hand, our aesthetic expectations have been heavily influenced by generative and process-informed design.
although in the community it is still discussed to what degree or even if at all interaction designers need to know how to program. the development of generative AI with its coding assistants, has pushed this question even further: is it even beneficial for designers to learn to code in 2024?
we strongly believe that the benefits of knowing how to program outweigh the difficulties of learning how to program by far. the very least one can learn when engaging directly with programming is an appreciation for the medium. this means e.g to acquire some of the vocabulary required to communicate with avid or synthetic programmers, get a better understanding of what is technically feasible, and gain a basic understanding of the digital aesthetics. when becoming more adept in programming one will be able to sketch with code, build prototypes and realize entire projects. this skill set should not be underestimated. there is a big difference between telling somebody what to build and building something oneself. iteration cycles can be kept tight, vague notions can be explored, indescribable ideas can be shaped, digital tools can be crafted. on a different tangent the avid programming interaction designer will be able to inquire the full aesthetic potential of new and digital media through practice.
learning how to program is very seldomly a linear success story. it requires patience and resilience to frustration; somewhat similar to learning how to play a musical instrument. similarly to the musical instrument it can be quite rewarding, enjoyable, and transformative at times. let’s start the journey.
a cute compute?
computers are changing,
computing has changed,
and the act of programming changes with it.
we immerse ourselves in the arcane and ancient art of writing computer programs; with modern tools and old intentions, through practical efforts and conceptual discussions, using input and output.
what is even a computer today?
computers have evolved from very specific numeric machines, which required extreme precision to be programmed. if you knew how to ask, and were willing to work hard enough to define it, they would give you precisely what you asked for at great speeds and with repeatability. the machines were limited, but knowable and deterministic.
we called this the personal computer. it totally changed how we as humans worked, expressed ourselves, had fun, and related to each other. the era of the personal computer was a wild time of weird garage startups, platform wars, and bedroom hacking.
today, computers engage in conversational formats, they speak with each other, estimate your needs and actions using huge piles of data. computers today are seemingly limitless, with complexities so vast and hardware profiles so ginormous they are effectively unknowable and un-ownable.
we call this the planetary computer. and it is a revolution in its own right. people can now create images, sounds, and even code from conversational inputs. all of this can happen without any programming knowledge. this is amazing. but it is also super confusing.
the conditions and algorithms running the computers are hidden, blackboxed, proprietary, and forever morphing. the computers we interact with today are mostly without bodies: glassy portals to magical experiences. the code that runs them is distributed across several interconnected platforms spanning the globe. some say that computers today even hallucinate.
why even learn computer programming today?
every new generation asks this question. it is not an easy one to answer, and possible answers vary widely — from a deep appreciation for the medium, to crafting prototypes, to building a programming-based practice.
our hypothesis is that by understanding the fundamentals of computation — what a computer is at its core, how to tweak it, script it, and program it — we form a more sustainable relationship with technology. we go from being passive consumers to active producers ( i.e. designers ).
planetary computation is power hungry. generally, the computer program with the most compute produces the best results. with only a few companies possessing enough compute and datasets large enough to train the models, computation has effectively become a normative force by notions of complexity, perceived inaccessibility, and sheer technological intimidation.
but beneath all of this change, the fundamental computer structure remains the same. it is still a turing complete machine, meaning it can be anything we want it to be — if we just know how to gain root access, take control of the system, and (re-)program it to our liking.
we believe there is an enormous opportunity here: to (re-)discover the joy of old computation. we sent people to the moon in rockets controlled by computers smaller than a pocket calculator for kids. digital pregnancy tests can run doom. there is so much compute!
what if we consider …
- battery-powered computation platforms?
- outdoor computation?
- a queer compute?
- the most uncompute way to compute?
- computer art?
- what would be your way to compute?
- small compute: repurposing defunct and obsolete hardware?
- all the layers of computers: from metal to service
- what is likeable about computers?
- a cute compute?
we believe …
- computers should be weird and fun.
- we will present an antidote to normative computing.
- we will learn what a computer actually is by programming it.
- we will repurpose used machines or craft our own.
- we will develop a more sustainable relationship with our personal compute.
it is a long journey and it is hard work, but it is well worth it!
hack the planet!