“The Matter of Code” is a story about the Creative Coding practice that eliminates the polarisation of code and matter. It is a story of a “material” that has unique properties, a combination of physical and digital matter that does not produce a simple sum. Its emergent properties allow the creation of a unique experience, something that to designers and artists is otherwise unattainable. This “material” gives way to the creation of complex spatial installations that react to stimuli from the environment, changing the experience of space, its perceptions, and subsequently affecting human emotions.
The contact of the digital and physical world has been dominated by the interaction with intermediary screens whose flat surfaces have limited the sensory experience - our understanding of the world is based on motion, action, active and bodily experience. Screens cause the observation and manipulation of symbols, that remove the person from reality. As a result any richness of touch is lost, as the hand’s natural and sophisticated ability to manipulate the object is evaded.
Screens have created a distance from the environment that has shaped us, destroying the work of evolution that through hundreds of thousands of years has adapted both the mind and body to the ever changing environment. However, the combination of the possibilities offered by programming, electronics and digital fabrication, will allow us to boldly overcome the barrier of the screen - as a “material” that can “blend bits and atoms” emerges.
The space around us will be filled with physical artefacts of digital properties that cannot be passed by indifferently. These objects will engage us with a multi-sensory experience that encourages interaction that acts in accordance to how the world, physically and kinetically, is experienced.
Every designer, artist or architect can use this “material” in his creative workshop, without the need of a degree in technology as the barrier of entry has dropped intensely. The simplification of digital technology, open source and open hardware movements, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) culture, and the development of IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for creative coding has allowed everyone of desire to master this material through experience - in the same way as a sculptor learning to shape wood, stone or clay.
This exhibition shows how Creative Coding crosses the boundaries between art, design and science. Further emphasising its presence in many areas of creation. The Creative Coding practice is a call to start thinking in an anti-disciplinary way, to forget about the stereotypical divisions between the humanistic and scientific mind and change the passive recipients of technology into its active creators. Readers become writers. In the words of Douglas Rushkoff, “Program or be programmed”, get access to the civilisation control panel, gain a voice in the discussion about our future.
At the heart of our approach to Creative Coding is the permission to create something that is not needed. Accidental wandering and openness to error leads to a wonderful surprise and a creative discovery. We are convinced that this approach gives the chance to create something groundbreaking. Hack the way technology is used, find unexplored areas of code usage and explore seemingly impossible connections at the junction of the physical and digital world.
The exhibition “The Matter of Code” has collected a number of works that are just such an exploration, a beginning of numerous artists and designers from Poland and abroad. As well as the best projects of the graduates of the second year of Creative Coding postgraduate studies.
