Form + code in design, art, and architecture

176 Pages·2013·57.901 MB·English

by  McWilliams, Chandler, Reas, Casey

FORM+
IN DESIGN,
ART, AND
ARCHITECTURE
CODE
Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams, LUST
Princeton Architectural Press / New York
Published by © 2010 Princeton Architectural Press No part of this book may be used or reproduced Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Bree Anne Apperley,
Princeton Architectural Press All rights reserved in any manner without written permission from Sara Bader, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning, Becca
37 East Seventh Street Printed and bound in China the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Casbon, Carina Cha, Tom Cho, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu,
New York, New York 10003 13 12 11 10 4 3 2 1 First edition Every reasonable attempt has been made to Carolyn Deuschle, Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick,
For a free catalog of books, call 1-800-722-6657. identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions Wendy Fuller, Jan Haux, Linda Lee, John Myers,
Visit our website at www.papress.com. will be corrected in subsequent editions. Katharine Myers, Steve Royal, Dan Simon, Andrew
Series editor: Ellen Lupton Stepanian, Jennifer Thompson, Paul Wagner, Joseph
Project editor: Laurie Manfra Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural
Designer: LUST Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher
Library of Congress Reas, Casey. 1. Computer software--Development. QA76.76.D47R42 2010
Cataloging-in-Publication Data Form+code in design, art, and architecture / 2. Computer-aided design. 3. Art and 005.1—dc22
Casey Reas, Chandler technology. 2010008505
McWilliams, and Jeroen Barendse. I. McWilliams, Chandler. II. Barendse,
p. cm. — (Design briefs) Jeroen. III. Title. IV.
Includes bibliographical references Title: Form and code in design, art,
and index. and architecture.
ISBN 978-1-56898-937-2 (alk. paper)
This book is dedicated to the students in
the Department of Design Media Arts at the
University of California, Los Angeles.

INTRODUCTION 8
WHAT IS CODE? 10
FORM AND COMPUTERS 26
REPEAT 42
TRANSFORM 66
PARAMETERIzE 92
VISUALIzE 118
SIMULATE 146
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 172
IMAGE CREDITS 173
BIBLIOGRAPHy 174
DESIGNER/ARTIST/ARCHITECT INDEx 176
8
HOW HAS SOFTWARE
AFFECTED THE VISUAL
ARTS?
WHAT IS THE POTEN-
TIAL FOR SOFTWARE
WITHIN THE VISUAL
ARTS?
AS A DESIGNER OR
ARTIST, WHy WOULD
I WANT OR NEED TO
WRITE SOFTWARE?
9
Software influences all aspects of contemporary design and
visual culture. Many established artists, such as Gilbert and
George, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami, have totally inte-
grated software into their processes. Numerous prominent
architects and designers use software extensively and com-
mission custom programs to realize their ideas. The creators
of innovative video games and Hollywood animated films also
write software to enhance their work.
While these exciting developments are taking place at
the highest levels of the creative professions, integrating them
into design education is a challenge. Even the most motivated
student will find the technical boundaries difficult to over-
come. As a comprehensive first introduction to software
N
development within the arts, this book seeks to encourage
O
the enthusiasm that the field requires. It will not, however,
I
teach you to program computers. To satisfy that urge, see
T
Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers C
* Casey Reas and Ben Fry,
and Artists by Casey Reas and Ben Fry.* U
Processing: A Programming
Handbook for Visual Designers In Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture we define D
and Artists (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2007). form as visual and spatial structures; code is defined primarily O
as computer programs, but we extend the definition to include R
T
instructions beyond computer code. The book is organized
N
into seven chapters: What is Code?, Form and Computers,
I
Repeat, Transform, Parameterize, Visualize, and Simulate. The
first two chapters set the foundation by defining terms and
introducing basic concepts. The themed chapters that follow
are deeply linked to code. Each begins with an essay to define
the territory, continues with images and captions to clarify and
explain each theme, and concludes with two illustrated exam-
ples of programs. The corresponding source code is available
in multiple programming languages and can be downloaded
for free from the book’s website:
http://formandcode.com.
We’re tremendously excited about the potential for creat-
ing form with code. We hope this book will inspire readers to
think further about the relationships between these topics.
The diverse typographic explorations on the title pages of the
following chapters began with the same typeface used for this
page—Neutral by Kai Bernau. Using Neutral’s geometry as a
foundation, we developed all of the typefaces by tweaking and
writing code using Python, PostScript, and Processing. The title-
page typography demonstrates the nature of codification: the
embedding of information within a system.