Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step

31 Mar 2006 Category: Features, Graphics, Technology, Worldwide

Processing: Maths To Art In One Simple Step

P for PingMag, in Processing...

Processing is a tool being used by artists around the world to create interactive digital masterpieces using a variety of different media. It is a worldwide open-source community project to boost the creativity of artists and designers in the modern digital age. Takashi Maekawa is head of Processing Japan and came to PingMag to talk about Processing work around the world, his thoughts on digital art, and 5 areas where he thinks Processing will be invaluable.

Interview by Jon and Chiemi.

Thanks for coming to see us, Takashi. Would you tell us a little about yourself first?

My name is Takashi Maekawa, I graduated from Tama University of Art this month (PingMag says: congratulations!) and I’ve been involved with Processing after I discovered it in 2002 whilst working with an educational project called Design By Numbers. Since then I’ve become the administrator of the Processing Japan community and my recent work is based around Processing and mobile hardware.

So what is Processing? Can you sum it up for us in say…3 words?

Maekawa Takashi and lots of computers

Wow that’s hard…that’s a hard question. Hmmm well I look at it as a way of quickly and efficiently making something that…wait that’s way more than 3 words. Ok 3 words? It’s an “artistic programming environment”.

Still sounds quite scary and complicated - what would you say if you had to describe it to a child?
Chiemi: Yeah, a child or me - I have no idea what this is!

Arrg! Ok well using programming…oh god children probably don’t know what programming is right? Ok how’s this: it’s like using maths to draw pictures.

The guts of any Processing script - lots of code

Perfect. Now, I know Processing work is not limited to the web in that it is used in installations, events etc, but when I see Processing on the web, a lot of the time it looks like Flash. Could you outline some of the differences?

One of the main differences for me and many other people is Processing’s ability to interface with a bunch of different things. Flash can do this too, for example in Flash you can take input from a webcam or a microphone, but the scope with Processing is much broader. So for example I can make an interactive display that reacts to a lever plugged into the serial port of a computer - stuff like that.

The Processing site encourages the community to help itself, with lots of tutorials and examples

Also, there is a really strong community behind Processing, helped by the fact that Processing is free for everyone to download and play with, and it’s open-source.

The other thing I find important is the fact that Processing wasn’t created by a company as a kind of generic tool, it was created by two artists. Ben Fry (Broad Institute) and Casey Reas (UCLA Design | Media Arts) created it with a pretty focused target in mind, and for that reason it’s a great tool for anyone working with interactive media. They have built it kind of “knowing” what you might want to do with it, if you see what I mean.

I guess if I had to compare it to Flash and say things in Flash’s favour, then the first thing would be that obviously, Flash is optimised for internet use and so it loads faster in the browser. Also, in Flash the animation environment and the programming (Actionscript) environment are kept kind of separate, so even beginners can animate things easily just by dragging things around.

Ok I think we are slowly understanding what Processing is. But it would be great to see some examples. Can you show us some?

Sure.


Typography experiment “rtype01″

Typography experiment “rtype02″, which Takashi has nicknamed “Cursed Letters” as the style reminds him of a horror movie

These are a couple of little experiments in Typography. Click the letters and see what happens…

Nice! How about some work that you’ve been impressed by from the rest of the world?

One project that I really like was created by the co-creator of Processing, Ben Fry, and is called Valence. It takes bits of English sentences from around the web and attempts to map the relationship of words on a 3D sphere.

Ben Fry’s “Valence” - View Valence

Very hypnotic. Anything else?

Alphabot55, by Nikita Pashenkov is a humourous look at Typography - press a letter on your keyboard to magically change the shape. You can also rotate it! Lastly, I really like this little cartoon-esque creation called Europa - note that this is not an “animation” in the traditional sense, all of this is handled with maths; the movement, the lines being drawn in the ice etc.


Nikita Pashenkov’s “Alphabot55″ - View Alphabot55

View Europa

Some interesting experimental work there. Some people say that Processing blurs the line between technology and art, do you agree?

I agree to an extent. Ultimately however, it appears that often, people who come to Processing view it based on their experience as a programmer or an artist, which shapes your goals accordingly. That is, an artist will seek to create something aesthetically beautiful and a programmer might be more interested in the manipulation of data to do something “clever”. That said, it’s also the reason why there is so much variety in Processing work, because you have these two sides collaborating.

Processing is used in “live” situations, not just on the web to make cool things to play with in the browser. Can you show us some examples?

“a string”, a performance using Processing for the “string” shadow in the background

A recent example would be a string which was used during a performance at the National Theater of Korea in December 2005. Here, processing was used to capture the real-time movement of a dancer and translate it into a visual effect resembling a “string” following the movements of the dancer’s shadow.

What made Processing a suitable tool for that?

Processing is very fast at manipulating data on-the-fly, especially with regard to input from video cameras. To recreate the same effect in a different tool such as Flash would be very difficult.

With regards to the Processing scene in Japan, how is it all going?

Pretty good. There are about 5 people who are at a level where they can teach, so Processing is being taught at a number of different art & design-related universities around Japan. In particular, Kyushu University has an ongoing research programme for methods of using video cameras with Processing.

Maekawa-san tapping away at his computer

Processing is still young, having started in around 2002. Up until now there has been a lot of experimentation but the whole scene is still a bit fragmented - what do you think are the main areas in which the use of Processing will be useful or suited to?

Well I can think of about 5 areas where there is a definite benefit to using Processing:

  • Anything involving camera input or interpreting/manipulating the movement of an object digitally - Processing does this really well.

  • I think it’s possible that we’ll see some interesting entertainment value from Processing, such as games.

  • VJ-like setups. As I have said, Processing can be made to work with various inputs; sound, video etc. That kind of technology would be useful for VJ-ing, for example making a giant version of the iTunes “Visualizer” that reacts to the movements of the audience and the sound coming from the speakers.

The pressure-sensitive “Presense” pad is now being incorporated into everyday electronics

  • For research purposes. The speed of development and versatility are a real aid to anyone doing research. For example, Sony CSL labs last year did a public exhibition on some new technologies they are working on. One of them was this pretty cool type of new user interface (pdf link), which was like a laptop trackpad but it could sense pressure as well as where your finger is on the pad. So for example when looking at a photo you could push hard to zoom in fast, that kind of thing. They built a working prototype of this device and created a graphical user interface to show people how it might work on your computer - the interface was all done in Processing, because you can easily get it to work with external devices like that.

  • For graphic designers. Processing is all maths, so you can do things like repeat shapes / objects thousands of times very easily. So for example if a graphic designer wanted to draw something in Adobe Illustrator that required the same object repeated over and over thousands of times to create some kind of pattern, it would take them ages. The same picture could be drawn in seconds using Processing with a little mathematical knowhow, and the great thing is that the latest version of Processing enables you to export everything to a pdf file, ready for print.

Good ideas - Processing certainly has lots of potential. Since we are talking about the blending of art and technology, is there anything else you would like to share with us in that field? It doesn’t have to be Processing-related.

You must take a look at Modulobe. It’s a free, downloadable application created by Eto Koichiro and it enables you to create a “creature” out of lego-like blocks, and the program gives it “life” and makes it walk, according to the physics that the body you have created will allow. Good for playing with! (Windows only - sorry Mac users!)

Modulobe

Also have a look at Sonasphere. This is kind of complicated to explain but it’s basically a visual display of sound in 3D space…just have a go with it! (Mac only - sorry Windows users!)

Sonasphere

Brilliant! Ok last question - I hope it’s ok to tell everyone (not a secret is it?) but your new job with IMG SRC (producers of PingMag) starts next week. What kind of expectations do you have…?

Well I have a background in both design and programming, so I’m hoping to be able to use both of these at IMG SRC. I’m not going to limit myself to just Flash etc, I’m hoping to do lots of technical-oriented work too.

Well, we’re looking forward to having you! Maybe you’ll be able to do some installation work to flex your Processing skills? Thanks for visiting us and…we’ll see you next week :)

49 Comments

  1. Ohmigod. Wow.

    Posted by: Laynie on April 1st, 2006 at 2:50 am

  2. wow thanks for the heads up on modulobe - that is one seriously fun bit of software!

    Posted by: TK on April 1st, 2006 at 9:40 am

  3. A mid point between Visual Arts and Programming, that is really great thing to see, it’s really unbelievable what we can do with such open source tool, and how much it can be usefull in a very artistic way :)

    Posted by: Rida Al Barazi on April 1st, 2006 at 9:07 pm

  4. Nao Tokui who made Sonasphere is update his project site. If you want to know more about Sonasphere, see this url
    http://www.naotokui.com/blog/archives/2006/03/sonasphere_over.html

    Posted by: Takashi Maekawa on April 2nd, 2006 at 12:48 am

  5. just when i thought pingmag was all about inflatable animals and pencilcases - excellent article

    Posted by: franco on April 2nd, 2006 at 6:22 pm

  6. [...] Math to Art - Art from programmers: Lovely interview on PingMag with Takashi Maekawa talking about Processing and what great work it can do, what differentiate it from Flash, with some wonderful exampls like Modulobe and Sonasphere. [...]

    Posted by: Rida Al Barazi » Blog Archive » Procrastinating Goodies I on April 2nd, 2006 at 9:08 pm

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  8. Interesting Interview, however I disagree to a certain extend that “Processing is very fast [at manipulating data on-the-fly,] especially with regard to input from video cameras”.
    My and others experience with live video especially on DV resolution and high fps is, that processing is very poor at rendering or computing high res video and still have computing capacities left over. It’s definitely better in rendering visuals etc. then doing live video.

    Posted by: Manuel on April 17th, 2006 at 7:24 pm

  9. [...] ..e from Maths to Art [...]

    Posted by: estal-pós graduação » Blog Archive » From Logic 2 Magic on May 4th, 2006 at 9:09 am

  10. We’ve been using Processing at Victoria University, New ZEaland for the last couple of months as part of our Digital Media course. We are coming from a design perspective with an emphasis on manipulation of code based design imperitives.

    Pretty soon we will have some great examples through our Blog; check them out… http://www.mediazone.co.nz/staff/jamesshaw/websites/201/blog/index.php

    Posted by: James on May 29th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

  11. That’s processing.

    Exelent!

    Posted by: Vien on June 10th, 2006 at 1:36 am

  12. Got a COOL video of the work that we did in MediaLab, New Zealand as I mentioned above… check it

    http://www.jamesshaw.co.nz/blog/?p=91

    Posted by: James on August 25th, 2006 at 12:56 pm

  13. Science = Beauty, how simple is that?

    Posted by: natasha on May 9th, 2007 at 8:31 pm

  14. Seems very similiar to VVVV and that seems easier to use.

    Posted by: KLJeffery on July 19th, 2007 at 1:19 am

  15. [...] as curator Matt Pyke of UK-based Universal Everything would say. These transient pieces made by processing are for us to see how far you can really push the aesthetics of software generated visualisations [...]

    Posted by: Advanced Beauty using processing on November 19th, 2008 at 4:09 am

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