Form and Code

by Casey Reas, Chandler McWilliams

The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of artists whose primary medium is software. Algorithmic processes, harnessed through the medium of computer code, allow artists to generate increasingly complex visual forms that they otherwise might not have been able to imagine, let alone delineate. The newest volume in our Design Brief series Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture is a non-technical introduction to the history, theory, and practice of software in the arts. Organized into themes linked to aspects of code—repetition, transformation,parameters, visualization, and simulation—each of the book's sections contains an essay, code samples, and numerous illustrations. An accompanying website (www.formandcode.com) features code samples in various programming languages for the examples in the book. An ideal introductory text for digital design and media arts courses, this unique primer will also appeal to students and professionals looking for a survey of this exciting new area of artistic production.

Genres: Design, Art, Architecture, Programming, Nonfiction, Art Design, Technology

176 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2010

About the author

Casey Reas is Professor of Design Media Arts at UCLA and coauthor of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists (MIT Press, 2007).

Reviews

[Tomas Markevičius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book for artists and designers who are very new to the world of creative coding. It’s a great recource for readers who are looking to find some high-level principles of how code works in order to generate and manipulate forms and images. The authors split the book into sections that each talk about a single core concept: repetition, transformation, simulation, parameterization, etc. It’s a great way to get conceptually familiar with the wide landscape and history of creative coding before diving into learning the actual craft.

I read this book in 2019 and even though technology changed a lot in the last decade, I think the content of this book remain as relevant as it was 10 years ago.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an excellent introduction to anyone interested in new media and how coding is developing as a medium of artistic expression in our culture. This book is graphically immersive; if you're anything like me, you will spend as much time reading the graphics as you will the accompanying text. This book will introduce you to the ideas, purpose, and relevance of each piece, and serves as a sort of cliff notes of this particular mode of expression. They mention some of the programs and languages that are used, but what this book does not do it go into any sort of depth as to how each of these artists used the tools to accomplish their artistic vision. Casey Reas seems to be a great person to introduce someone new to this topic, and give them a basic understanding, but this book moves only slightly beyond coffee table fare for those who are genuinely interested in the more intimate details of how artists are actually using these various coding languages. If you want to learn Processing or MAX, or some other sort of scripting program, I'd dive deeper elsewhere. Otherwise a greatly entertaining and fun read.

[Vlad Anghel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphically immersive, this is only an introduction to various new media tools and techniques. I recommend looking for smth else if you want a deeper understanding of these tools.

[Dan Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book 15 years ago as a fervent creative coder early in my career. It was refreshing to revisit in 2025 and recall just how impactful a lot of the visual language and concepts here have been on my personal taste and journey as a developer. I’ve been tinkering with p5js on a personal project for the past month or so and it had been inspiring and fun to write code again. Also wild looking at 5be last few pages regarding AI — what a cluster it has become.

[cantread26 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great comprehensive book surveying art made in the ~creative code dev art generative form~ world that also describes core coding concepts in simple terms. It's kind of everything that got me into this realm so was fun to read a breakdown of the history of lots of these things and how someone else would tackle talking about it.

[Isak🌸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

evig kul bok med masse bilda av forskjellig digital kunst. her e et bilde av nuutti som jobbe på nettsia si nuutti.no. vil si at det kan sees på som kunst det og



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[Enrique PeraltaOblitas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great book if you're into computer science, architecture, design, biology, physics or all of these disciplines. It felt to me like a great introduction and source of inspiration since it sums up the history of an emerging field that connects very unusual dots in our society and industries.

[Erika Verhagen]

useful explanation of the fundamentals of creative coding and the basic logic of code. A pretty good smattering of examples of work as well, though without too much theoretical depth beyond introduction of concepts. served the purpose for which i read it!

[Myat Phyo Thu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concepts. But this could've been more than a book to the readers with programming background if algorithms are provided.

[Lauren Meranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first portion is great and informative, touching on theory of creative coding However, I was much less interested in the case studies. The connection to the first half of the book was slight.

[Alb85 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il libro offre una panoramica dei piu popolari esempi di software utilizzati sia per creare arte visiva che nell'ambito dell'"Information Visualization".

[Keisuke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The aesthetic values are constantly changing. The age of the industrial revolution brought modern aesthetic values such as: Romanticism, Impressionism...in all artistic fields. Now it is the age of code. We understand anything in the way of coding. Even our body can be decoded in DNA. There are codes behind forms. The book is written in the context of not only "coding" but also the art history. Even if you are not familiar with any technological aesthetics or hate computers, it is still worth reading this book.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. The book does not require any knowledge of programming and at the same time it provides a survey of the fundamentals of code and how it relates to digital art.
The examples of art work shown in the book are just as interesting as the writing. This is the type of book that leads me to many more books to follow up with.

[Hans Gerwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casey Reas can sometimes seem like a one-trick pony, following Sol LeWitt with new tools. Assembling this book, though, he re-asserted himself as a leader in generative art. It's inspiring and I expect will remain relevant for the ideas longer than the tools used in the examples.

[Ezekiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of different approaches to digital media.

[Nitant Hirlekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

THis is Good Start Up Material For the people who want to get an Idea about use of Code in Creative manner....just blows your Mind with the possibilities of the CODE ........

[John Hajdar · Rating 5 out of 5]

good source of cody artists and what they do.
not much on the how.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable compendium of design, art, and code ideas that blend and blur the edges between art and technology.

[Janis Godins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and easy-to-read book on aesthetics of Computer Science.

[Marjolein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super interesting collection of information and related art projects. Love it!

[Fai Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy mother of perfection!! my heart aches for every beautiful work in this book.