So far...

Hello everyone, here's some news from Skopje.

As I mentioned before, we are pass the formal workshop, and in a period of creating works, discussing ideas, progress, changing directions. Here is a short description of what we have been doing in the past period.

The process was split into official and non-official meetings, and so far we have finished the official (educative) ones, now we are only catching up with the participants and the works they are creating.

The first official meeting was held on March 6, where we went through the idea of the project, we discussed the situation in our city, the way young artists are working, how they are (under) represented, the process of creation and how it is influenced either by social conditions or some programming software. We discussed about the way of work we will choose, and we agreed to have a couple of educative sessions, where the participants will go through the basics of the programming language Processing*and consider doing their final works as generative artworks.

Nevertheless, we met again before the workshop in order to go through some major points in the digital arts history. We found this to be informative, as well as inspiring for the participants, since some of them haven’t had the chance to earn that kind of education. We discussed the way digital arts were developing, the role of the artist and the technology, the equipment, software, hardware, the mediation and influences…

In order to better understand the function of Processing, we discussed the physical environment, and how most of the design/animation/flash/graphic editing programs tend to reproduce the same conditions and parameters from the nature, and how Processing is different in that matter. The discussion was about better understanding of the application as a mediator in the process of creating a work of art.

Finally, one of the past weekends was dedicated to work in classroom

We went through some basics in contemporary art, especially works that have been created as an environment, as a result of some interaction…

Participants were taught the basics of Processing, and shown how to manipulate the environment it offers and creates. They were also shown how they can use different materials as resources in their work with this tool (internet data, images, sounds). These two days of work were a period when they were able to assess if Processing is the right language for them to use in their work, and some of them decided they will do so, others decided they will use other applications and tools with keeping in mind what they have learned from the principles of Processing and Generative art.

So far, we are meeting separately with whoever needs discussion, exchange of opinions on what they are doing at the moment. We have arranged to meet up all together again this week, and check out on the progress. By now, everyone should have an idea they are working on and developing. I should also have some drafts soon, and will post them here for you. They will probably be in various formats, but I will look to have the basic motifs and ideas represented. In the meantime, we are also discussing all questions and ideas on our blog, and first results are to come in a couple of days.

Also, I have to say that all of your projects look great and looks like you’re all having a good time working. We are all learning from you a lot!

Until we read again, greetings from Macedonia,

Ivana
and the LINE Initiative and Movement team.

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* Processing is a programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts and visual design communities", which aims to teach the basics of computer programming in a visual context, and to serve as the foundation for electronic sketchbooks