When you make art, what do you reach for first?
Creators in Detroit, Michigan—and across the world—are turning first to software like Max/MSP, Raspberry Pi, and Processing. These apps are part of their ‘creative coding’ practices, using computer programming to make art.
Artists plug instructions into computers until a graphic or final piece is made. Some create animations and 2D images. Others incorporate video and music.
“You can do anything with creative coding. It’s kind of like whatever your medium is, there’s a way to integrate it or utilize it somehow,” says Sam Seurynck Griffith. She’s the graphic designer and creative technologist who founded Creative Coding Detroit last year.
It’s a free, monthly meetup at BULK Space for locals making sketches, websites, experiments, or art installations with code. Dozens of members strong, coders meet (online on Discord and in person) to show their work, skill and resource share, learn, and teach. There’s nothing like it nearby; Griffith has been creative coding for a decade in Detroit and never really met her people until now.
“This work is inherently behind a computer or if you’re a part of a show, sometimes you’re the only person who’s doing code-based work,” she says. “It felt like making this meetup was just kind of an essential thing. Let’s legitimize my own practice and make a platform for other people to legitimize theirs and to share resources.”
Since forming nearly a year ago, the group has been filling that need: to connect coding with creative community.
SAM SEURYNCK GRIFFITH“It makes sense to me that Detroit would be a hub for creative coding, because people are just approaching everything from a different perspective. It’s like the dominant paradigm is not always at play in Detroit. So people are finding their way and always being incredibly creative.”
Ann Arbor’s Abhishek Narula knows this well. An artist, designer, and educator, he calls Creative Coding Detroit a “lifesaver.” There, he mentors newer coders ahead of an upcoming collaborative showcase.
“Having that place to go and meet people that think similarly—and differently, for that matter—and how they approach their work, has been very invigorating and very inspiring,” he says.
To Narula, creative coding is a blend of our left and right brains. It’s where analytics meet art—in a way that’s not always possible with other media, he says.
“And what I mean by that is time can be collapsed. There are experiences that can be developed that’s sometimes difficult to do in a sculpture or a static thing. Things evolve and change; it’s almost like a living being in some ways,” Narula says.
The creativity found in computing has long been tied together. Think of the 19th century Jacquard loom, a pre-computer used to weave complicated textile patterns. Physical art, meet process.
“I think all tech is inherently creative. We didn’t have computers until we made them, right?” Griffith says.
“[But] it’s not necessarily about the tech. It’s about: What are you making with the tech? What are you discovering with the tech? How are you sharing it?”
In this community, it’s through posters, graphics, videos, music, and just about anything you can make with 0s and 1s—with an artsy twist.
