Reddit reviews Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

Processing and suggested textbook

It's a Java derivative. I learned it in my intro for-not-CS-majors class. It was great because the visual output made the programming so much more interesting. :) The textbook was very good, it was written in a very personal, simple way. Felt more like someone speaking to me, which made it easier to understand.

	

	

	

> # Generative Art Finds Its Prodigy — Artnome
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> In our last article "Why Love Generative Art?" we had a blast putting the genre into the context of modern art history. In this article we interview contemporary generative art prodigy (my words, not his) Manolo Gamboa Naon from Argentina.
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> Manolo's work feels like it is the result of the entire contents of twentieth-century art and design being put into a blender. Once chopped down into its most essential geometry, Manolo then lovingly pieces it back together with algorithms and code to produce art that is simultaneously futuristic and nostalgic. His work serves as a welcome (and needed) bridge into digital art and an antidote for those who see the genre as cold, mechanical, and discontinuous with the history of art.
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> We couldn't be more excited to share our interview with Manolo, his first to be published in English. But before we dive in, let's have some fun and deconstruct a few examples of his work. For me, seeing his work side by side with the masters of twentieth-century art highlights just how well it holds its own.
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> bbccclll - Manolo Gamboa Naon , June 20, 2018
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> Arrowhead Picture - Wassily Kandinsky, 1923
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> Arrowhead Picture - Wassily Kandinsky, 1923
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> Composition 8 - Wassily Kandinsky, 1923
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> Composition 8 - Wassily Kandinsky, 1923
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> I see Wassily Kandisnky as an obvious artistic influence on Manolo. The two share a masterful use of color and composition and an interest in exploring spiritual and psychological effects of color and geometry. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Manolo's series of works titled bbccclll, which have all the rhythm and beauty of Kandinsky's early-1920s lyrical abstractions. Kandinsky said of abstract painting that it is "the most difficult" of all the arts, noting:
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> > It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for color, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.
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> Manolo's visual poetry checks all of these boxes and does it through code and pixels alone. His poetry is most evident in the range of styles and emotions he can elicit from the most basic elements of geometry. For example, let's compare Manolo's Kandinsky-esque bbccclll with a work that feels closer to Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Manolo's CUDA. We can quickly see how Manolo triggers a completely different range of emotions by shifting the color and placement of just two basic elements, the circle and the triangle.
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> CUDA   - Manolo Gamboa Naon , June 5, 2018
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> Circular Shapes Sun and Moon - Robert Delaunay, 1912,1931
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> Circular Shapes Sun and Moon - Robert Delaunay, 1912,1931
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> Prismes électriques - Sonia Delaunay, 1914
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> Prismes électriques - Sonia Delaunay, 1914
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> Indeed, Sonia Delaunay sounds as if she is referring to Manolo's sensitivity to color and prolific body of work when she said:
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> > He who knows how to appreciate color relationships, the influence of one color on another, their contrasts and dissonances, is promised an infinitely diverse imagery.
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> Another one of my favorite works by Manolo, ppllnnn, has a really strong Max Ernst vibe for me. The highly detailed and organic texture of this work reminds me of similar textures that Ernst was able to generate by pioneering techniques like frottage and decalcomania to introduce complexity and randomness into his own works.
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> ppllnnn -  M anolo Gamboa Naon ,  July 31, 2018
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> 100,000 Doves - Max Ernst, 1925
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> 100,000 Doves - Max Ernst, 1925
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> The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending the Spine to Look for Caresses - Max Ernst, 1921
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> The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending the Spine to Look for Caresses - Max Ernst, 1921
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> Ernst, always open to surprise and chance, once said:
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> > Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.
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> As you will see in our interview, invention, discovery, and revelation are also at the core of Manolo's art-making process.
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> Before starting the interview, I'd like to thank Artnome's brilliant digital collections analyst, Kaesha Freyaldenhoven, who acted as our English-to-Spanish interpreter and later transcribed the interview, translating it into English. None of this would be possible without her enthusiastic assistance, and we very are lucky to have it.
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> ## An Interview with Manolo Gamboa Naon
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> PPCCCC - Manolo Gamboa Naon, June 4, 2018
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> Jason Bailey (JB): A lot of generative artists either start as artists first or programmers first and then build the other skillset. Can you tell us a little about your background? How did you first end up making generative art?
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> Manolo Gamboa Naon (M): I was young. I was thirteen. But, well, I think in that moment, I started making images but I didn’t know what I was doing. I did not realize that there were other artists out there doing the same things I was doing. Only after many years and finding other artists, did I say, 'Wow! There are people doing things with Flash that I now appreciate in this moment.' I later switched to Processing.
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> JB: How long have you been using Processing?
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> M: Seven years.
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> JB: How did you learn it?
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> M: I had an orange book - Schiffman - during this time. But I also started studying design as a career. They encouraged us to learn Processing for a year. We had to learn how to program in the course. But during this time, I was more interested in creating interactive things rather than design.
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> (continues in next comment)

Learning Processing by Dan Schiffman is good, too.

This book is amazing to teach a language called Processing, which is a simpler version of Java.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Processing-Beginners-Programming-Interaction/dp/0123736021