15. Interface and application programming¶
This week we had classes by both Bas and Bente - I really enjoyed seeing them speaking from their own planet. Their lectures would count as group assignment. Bas Bente Also, I found this week the most pleasurably daunting of all. The enormous diversity in languages and gear was mindblowing. Extremely interesting, and wetting my appetite for coding and using different (logical) parameters for, well, basically everything. Learningcurve seemed as steep as an overhang. I spent many hours watching tutorials and examples of previous years’ Fab students. On coding in general On processing 1, 2, 3, 4 with Arduino this one a distant dream
I greatly enjoyed tinkering with Processing. Probably the visuality of it made me feel closer to home. It is, among other things, an IDE looking very much like the one I got accustomed to from Arduino. (Processing is, in fact, the predecessor of the Arduino suite) In the ‘about’ on the homepage it states that it was designed for (artist-) newbies like me to get into programming more easily, and that is what it did. It is very visual, does not require in-depth knowledge of coding, and the immediate results are rewarding. I used version 3.5.4 and version 4. The tutorials are easy to follow, and the examples reminded me of early video art from the 1970’s which is fun. The similarity in looks between the IDE’s is not the only thing: serial data acquired from an Arduino (sensors e.g.) can be sent to Processing, resulting in a wide range of interesting visual outputs. This opens up possibilities for interactivity, for me first and foremost in the field I am already acquainted with. It is one of the skills that I’ll be able to, without having access to a Shopbot or other machinery, further explore.
One step along the way was me practicing with my Arduino: I managed to make an interface with which I could light up the LED on the board, and quite frankly that made me feel as close to magic as anything.
Tutor Henk confirmed my hunch though: I’d have to work with my own board.
And so I was ready to make a fresh 
…and then I got sick, and now, in june, I realize I got as far as making the interface and programming something, excluding a selfmade board. I tweaked an example code, and made my own interactive visuals - one that brings back memories of the family dog who’d always do the opposite of what you wanted.
SIT DOWN!
code The Arduino code I use in the clip I could not retrieve.