Computation and Brain Farts

Computation to me always seemed like an unreachable part of my brain hidden behind many doors and locks.  Much like if you eat too much of the wrong type of burrito it churns me around and spits me out to a place with no sense of gravity.  The challenge of navigating this way of thinking is what entices me.  While growing up I had a fascination with hardware and took things apart, because that was easy.  The software tweaks I explored that helped me fry six computers and countless hard drives became a result of my endless putzing in an unfamiliar zone.  Efficient, no?

Anyway, after settling into the daily grind of corporate work and being more immersed with software to this day, I wanted to know how to utilize hardware in a way that doesn't turn it into a glorified paperweight. Bridging my worlds of hands on creativity with a thought process to compliment it was a goal I've always had, but never committed to.  (Except myspace, cause that was my jam). RIP to my angsty teenage phase and clothes that never fit me right.  I also thought hacking was cool, and still do.

So my goal is to code a supplement to my expression.  I want to bring my interests in music, dance, performance, paint, language and cultures together.  How can I evoke emotions through functions written on a computer?  The stress of learning to write codes and programs is something I want to endure to help me out in the long run.  It's all so broad now but the more I learn I know I'll fall into the path I was looking for the entire time.

___

Starting this assignment, I recognized some patterns I've learned from *light* coding over the years.  So a sigh to relief as I wasn't starting from 0, more like a 1.  I'm still far from attaining a perception that will allow me to know what the code does before I have to run it, and run it again, and again.  Until I'm like, what happens if I add another value here?  Or more zeros there?  And then everything crashes because I didn't know 1000000 was too big of a number for that function.

And here it is, my "what started out as a portrait" turned into something else!

Sort of a face...

Playing around with different sizes, trying to figure out how to put objects in front of each other.  Started to define areas with // because it got confusing the more code I put in.

Tried to make a color palette to use instead of typing in the values each time...maybe define another variable besides C?

I highlighted this, probably because I still had to put a value in, just any number really and it worked?

This looks like something.  I had to put a triangle, so I did.

I kind of know what this function does, but, also I do not.  It looks cool and I had fun messing around with the variables.

Started messing around with it more, and oh... it crashed the page. 1 million is too much after all.

Annnnnd, I started over again from just the eyes (auto save wasn't working) and got this.  I'm especially proud of the eyebrows.

Overall, I found the p5js editor to be easier to use.  With a tiny background in coding I was able to pick up things fast.  The biggest hardship I faced was finding where to define my coordinates for shapes and lines.  I trialed and error many number combinations until I got to the place I wanted, or the shape I wanted.  While successful, it seemed a bit inefficient.  My brain was staring at a blank square and had to imagine a grid system overlaying it all.

I'd like to explore the full capabilities of this software, and even just seeing lesson 2's videos I believe we will be doing some pretty cool things soon!

–till next time
JB