Generative Art: A Practical Guide Using Processing

by Matt Pearson

Summary

Generative Art presents both the technique and the beauty of algorithmic art. The book includes high-quality examples of generative art, along with the specific programmatic steps author and artist Matt Pearson followed to create each unique piece using the Processing programming language.
About the Technology
Artists have always explored new media, and computer-based artists are no exception. Generative art, a technique where the artist creates print or onscreen images by using computer algorithms, finds the artistic intersection of programming, computer graphics, and individual expression. The book includes a tutorial on Processing, an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions.
About the Book
Generative Art presents both the techniques and the beauty of algorithmic art. In it, you'll find dozens of high-quality examples of generative art, along with the specific steps the author followed to create each unique piece using the Processing programming language. The book includes concise tutorials for each of the technical components required to create the book's images, and it offers countless suggestions for how you can combine and reuse the various techniques to create your own works.

Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.
What's Inside
The principles of algorithmic art
A Processing language tutorial
Using organic, pseudo-random, emergent, and fractal processes

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Table of Contents
Part 1 Creative Coding
Generative Art: In Theory and Practice
Processing: A Programming Language for ArtistsPart 2 Randomness and Noise

The Wrong Way to Draw A Line
The Wrong Way to Draw a Circle
Adding Dimensions
Part 3 Complexity
Emergence
Autonomy
Fractals

Genres: Art, Design, Programming, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Coding, Computers

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2011

Reviews

[Ulee ☄︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are new to programming and have ever programmed before, don't read this book yet. Read "Getting Started with Processing" first and then read this book next.
This book is more targeted to people who already know how to program and want to see what they can do creatively with the processing language. The author just glazes over the syntax and gives the bare minimum information about programing standards. This may be because processing is not a complex language and you can get away with knowing the bare minimum. I only wish the chapter on fractals was longer. That was my main reason for getting this book, but it was enough information to get me started in the right direction.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doens't really offer anything that you couldn't find online. Good for an absolute beginner.

[Alex Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book that made me sit down and make something artistic with code. Before reading this, I felt too intimidated to try.

As I tend to find with most things, when the scope for exploration is infinite, I need to be given somewhere to start or else I'll soon get lost and feel overwhelmed. This is especially true because I am already familiar with software programming and maths, so the "get started" tutorials that teach you how to code by producing something completely (visually) uninspiring don't do it for me.

This book provides a broad overview of what I'll call sources of chaos: techiques an artist can use to transform cold, concrete code into something organic and unpredictable. It takes the reader on a journey, exploring new techniques in each chapter with minimalist (but often striking) examples. These are accompanied by selected examples of art that use these techniques, often with links to the source code. As the book progresses, it also introduces more code syntax to teach the reader some basic Java/Processing.

The descriptions and visual examples of these sources of chaos are very well done. They are the nucleus I was looking for. The code is reasonably well presented and the coding techniques are introduced at a reasonable pace. However, the book is too short to actually teach a new programmer how to code effectively. If you are new to coding, I strongly recommend practicing a lot between chapters (there are lots of websites that offer programming challenges). It's important to really get to grips with the fundamentals so you can identify what's not working more easily while there are fewer moving parts.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review to come, but in short: I loved this book. While some of it has sadly already become dated (as the author told me, many of the online examples are no longer available due to outdated browser tech), the principles and approach are all still very relevant and approachable. I didn't work through every piece of code, but many of them were easily translated to p5.js.

[Enkh-Amar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid statements about generative art, and programming is not only about business implemetation. Motivative ideas. But there is no interactive design aspects. Like audio/music visualization.

[Yates Buckley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really great and pretty book about generative digital art with simple examples.

[Pedro Hdz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're already a developer and you want to create cool stuff with Processing/P5js this is a good start.

[Heather Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting examples. Structured exposition. Useful. A good complement to The Nature of Code.

[Jake McCrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows you some building blocks of generative art. It uses Processing and steps you through examples ranging from as simple as drawing a line to generating fractals.

All of the examples support Matt Pearson's idea that by embracing chaos you can create something interesting.

I rewrote pretty much every line of code in this book into Clojure using the Quil library. The immutable nature of Clojure transformed some of the examples dramatically.

I'm not sure how approachable this book would be to someone who doesn't have at least some background in writing software.

Enjoyable book. It took me a long time to work my way through it. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on using emergence and autonomy to generate interesting chaotic systems. I have some ideas for future projects based off some of the learnings in this book.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to generative art with Processing, with lots of practical examples and some colour plates at the start of the book. This book is ideal as a starter and inspiration, however by keeping things simple it doesn't go into the depth needed for a more long term or reference book. A lot of very simple and important functions and programming concepts are not covered, so you would need to get another book alongside this.

I enjoyed the authors informal and friendly style and step by step instructions.

[Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I strongly believe that I am yet to grasp the nature of generative art. This book pointed out clearly my wrong approach in which I couldn’t let go of control and was very reluctant to embrace more of randomness. An extremely well-written book, especially the Introduction part:
“Generative art is about creating the organic using the mechanical”
“Chaos isn’t to be feared”
“If rules exist, they’re for the breaking”

[GeekPlux · Rating 4 out of 5]

把基本概念讲了，初窥门径吧。processing那一章我直接跳过了，感觉这个语言直接就可以上手没必要学，而且我估计会用p5.js而不是processing本身。最喜欢的是wrong way to draw的几节，有种鞭辟入里的感觉。

[Ezekiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of the wide range of processes and methodologies underpinning this form.

[Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a beginner, especially new to programming but may not go into the algorithmic details you may want to explore.