05.09.2008
4:39 am
I Admit Defeat
I’ve been getting extremely interested in programming as of late, particularly in regards to Flash AS3 and Processing. And within these two, I was getting extremely interested in their integration of sound analysis being tied to code-based visual experiments. There’s been a number of people doing some pretty amazing things already with code-based visuality, including Jared Tarbell, Eric Natzke, and of course the first major Flash code-artist superstar Joshua Davis (among many, many others).
Now, I’m fairly decent with Flash. I can build some pretty complex interactivity into web-sites, I started to get into doing some code-based flash generative art as experiments, and I’ve learned to be fairly good at debugging and developing. However, I’ve finally come to the realization that unless I’m going to dedicate my time to becoming a programmer fulltime, there’s just no way I can keep up. For example, take some of Rodger Hodgin’s latest work (both done completely in Processing):
Weird Fishes: Arpeggi from flight404 on Vimeo.
Blog Post: Visualizing Radiohead(more info about this video)
Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.
Blog Post: Solar, with Lyrics (more info about this video)
Stunning pieces of work, absolutely. And you should read the blog posts that explain everything that went into making those pieces come out the way they did, it’s interesting stuff.
That being said, minus the whole degree in computer science thing that a lot of these guys probably have, a lot of it is simply a matter of putting in your hours to learn the languages. Which would be fine if it was just learning Flash, or just learning Processing, but I’m beginning to understand that you seem to have to learn multiple languages to truly develop the kind of stuff that I’m envisioning when I look at this stuff. Not to mention, you have to keep abreast of all the other developments and libraries and stuff that the community is doing.
For example, I was looking to get into playing around with some particle systems in Flash as some side experiments in the next couple days, so I downloaded the Flint Particles Library, unzipped, put it in my Flash classes directory, and promptly discovered that it has 14 different packages with what looks like over 50 different classes that you have to learn what they do and how they integrate together in order to use it. Not to mention Papervision3D which is a robust 3D rendering engine for Flash AS3. No, it’s not as powerful as an actual 3D rendering environment, but there’s some amazing things being done with it already. And some of you more nerdy readers may acknowledge that Flash is cool, but it can’t really compete with OpenGL (what most of your video games are rendered in) environments for 3D rendering. Oh, but hark, Adobe is in the process of developing Hydra… er… Pixel Bender which is “a common image and video processing infrastructure which provides automatic runtime optimization on heterogeneous hardware”. Essentially, they’re developing the CS3 After Effects image/video processing engine to work across multiple Adobe environments (including Flash); and the language is going to be similar to GLSL (OpenGL’s Shader Library language). *boggle*
Seriously, I’m so damned excited about the possiblities of the interwebz in the coming years from these few links and I’m sure there’s tons of things I don’t even know about yet. It’s all quite exciting. But, I guess I’ve finally coming to the realization that I can’t do all of these things I’m interested in because there just isn’t enough time in a day. When I’m already having to deal with clients, standards-based development stuff, accounting (well, not anymore, I just got a book-keeper to take care of that, yay!), client maintenance, etc., your free time is stringent at best and I, personally, like to spend some of it away from the computer. I guess it’s just a matter of realizing your strengths and accepting that yes, other people can do things better than you so you should let them, as much as my ego doesn’t want to admit that. Plus, I just don’t I have the energy to devote to being that completely logical all the time. Programming is a nice challenge once in a while from the ‘creative’ side of things, but I’ll take Photoshop or Illustrator any day over 2000 lines of code.
So I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if you know anyone in the Vancouver area that’s an extremely talented programmer interested in pushing the boundaries of interactivity and installation work, get them to contact me. In the meantime, I’m going to go play with After Effects, Cinema4D, VDMX and Quartz to see if I can integrate my passion for visuals and sound another way.
Other Interesting Links to Note that I found in my travels tonight:
Processing Visualization Language ported to Javascript
Adobe Open Screen Project (they’ve lifted the FLV/FL4/SWF licensing restrictions!)
Seb Lee-Delisle
Andre Michelle
Quasimondo
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5 Comments
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I totally know what you mean. It’s an ever expanding universe of technology out there. Considering how fast things on the web are advancing, the pressure to specialize is becoming imminent, even for us “creative generalists”. The world of design, like in all things, is full of these kinds of tradeoffs. I guess it comes down to what kind of rockstar you want to be: Print, Web, Video or Flash?
Glad you’re blogging buddy!
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Or here’s a thought:
If life is a progression of different chapters, then what kind of rockstar do you want to be for this period in time?
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I think that’s the issue I’m struggling the most with right now. I enjoy being the web rockstar, but I’m getting bored and tired of the all the browser issues and find the ideas of synthesis of video/sound/installation much more enticing and am starting to move in that direction now. But in the meantime, I keep finding my attention being dragged off to other interests and it’s really hard to focus on one thing when it’s not what I have to do to survive.
I’m really starting to understand this whole Economy of Attention that I’ve been hearing about lately.
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Interesting you bring up the attention economy since I’ve been writing an essay on that. It’s a weirdly circular thing.
1. We, as humans have limited hours in the day and therefor finite amount of attention to direct.
2. Were the aggregate of people’s attention is directed is where the power lies.
3. They who hold our attention hold the power.And lastly, because attention is mutable, power can be taken away and given somewhere else at any instant. This is the world we live in.
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I was actually at a talk today by Dr. Eric McLuhan (Marshall McLuhan’s son) who said something rather profound after the guy directing the discussion asked him a question about the attention economy:
The attention economy is getting dated. Anyone I know who is really forward-looking now is focusing on the economy of inattention already.