Inaugural Holiday Book Giveaway
Giveaway #001
Good Evening Friends,
Happy Holidays!
For just a moment, I want to dream.
It’s been a nagging fascination and drive of mine to create a community interested in generative art.
For the artists who share a love for generative art, I want to create a platform and voice that provides mentorship, work, and collaboration opportunities for one other.
As for the admirers, I want to provide access to these amazing artists through tutorials, articles, podcasts, and video interviews. And secretly, I hope you will find it fascinating enough and try creating art as well. You don’t really know if you might be the next Picasso until you try.
These are lofty goals (I know), and you might ask, so what?
In the words of Roy Bennett,
“Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.”
I have to try.
But to be more mission-driven, here are a few of the reasons:
Dispell the stigma of computer art as being static and uninventive
Provide, Build, and Discover new tools/paintbrushes to artists
Accelerate our ability to push the bounds of discovery
Painting the world with color, meaning, and diversity is a beautiful thing.
But I need you.
This could never happen without a community to push toward those goals. All of this will take time, maintenance, software, and quality control.
Which brings us to the fun stuff!
It's the time of year to be giving. And I'd love to take the opportunity to do so in this season by announcing:
the first Inaugural Holiday Book Giveaway!
We will be giving away a copy of "Processing: A Programming Handbook" (Retails for $75), which I consider one of the best books to become involved in the world of creative programming.
But I plan that it isn’t going to be just an annual thing.
My goal is to continue giving prizes away regularly (this will ramp up over time), which will continue to grow as we build a platform. I will need you all to continue to share (especially this giveaway.) For now, Substack will be home, but over time I hope to convert into a platform that will give us many opportunities to do some really creative things.
In case you want to know more about the book:
Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists
The new edition of an introduction to computer programming within the context of the visual arts, using the open-source programming language Processing; thoroughly updated throughout.
The visual arts are rapidly changing as media moves into the web, mobile devices, and architecture. When designers and artists learn the basics of writing software, they develop a new form of literacy that enables them to create new media for the present, and to imagine future media that are beyond the capacities of current software tools. This book introduces this new literacy by teaching computer programming within the context of the visual arts. It offers a comprehensive reference and text for Processing (www.processing.org), an open-source programming language that can be used by students, artists, designers, architects, researchers, and anyone who wants to program images, animation, and interactivity. Written by Processing's cofounders, the book offers a definitive reference for students and professionals. Tutorial chapters make up the bulk of the book; advanced professional projects from such domains as animation, performance, and installation are discussed in interviews with their creators.
I hope this was beneficial, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments. I believe there is much to be done, and I’m really excited to see what we can do in the coming year.
Best Wishes,
Chris Ried