2nd day.
2nd day, 1st round of actual nodeboxing.
Lucas told us the “eraser story” which was fascinating. Why are the tools of computer programs analogies of physical tools? Are these analogies only impediments, an intermediary phase before some new tools that are more characteristic of the computer itself? Isn’t it quite natural to imitate physical tools? It’s impossible to completely detach one’s self from the concrete world. The computer itself ultimately presents the end-product in a concrete form, something that can be seen (light).
Accidentally, my first experiments in Nodebox turned into optical illusions. Two “stars” placed on top of each other resulted in moire patterns. Paradoxically, moire forms are something that are independent of the geometric forms that are in question (two stars in this case). The code is exact and very minimal but just the act of looking at the images produced by the code adds elements to the whole, something that doesn’t really exist. The concrete forms (as opposed to the forms as programmed abstractions) are surprisingly different and pretty unpredictable (at least for me).
A quicktime clip: starmove2yy.mov
