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February 03, 2009

Top 5 Books on Processing

by EMPRNT | 5 Comments | Posted in Guides

Processing

It’s the language behind some of the most amazing interactive experiences this past year and we’re giving you the top 5 books you can read to get into it.

Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

Processing was founded by Ben Fry and Casey Reas in 2001 while both were John Maeda's students at the MIT Media Lab. Further development has taken place at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Carnegie Mellon University, and the UCLA, where Reas is chair of the Department of Design | Media Arts. Miami University, Oblong Industries, and the Rockefeller Foundation have generously contributed funding to the project.

Some examples of projects made by Processing

Balloon Light System by Media Lab

First rough video of the system Media Lab Toronto developed to control 250 huge, RGB LED lit balloons that were designed and installed by KPMB for the Luminato Arts and Creativity festival festival in Toronto.

The system we built with was an array of mics hanging in the canopy of balloons. The audio was processed through a Pure Data app and passed along to the Processing which converted sounds data into light patterns and passed along that data to a third machine that sent DMX control messages to the RGB lamps that were inside each one of the balloons.

See the Case Study

MACE Everyville

At the Venice Biennale, the mæve installation connects the entries of the EveryVille student competition and puts them into the larger context of MACE content and metadata. By placing physical project cards on an interactive surface, the visitors can explore an organic network of projects, people and media. mæve is designed and developed by the Interface Design team of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

See the Case Study

Visualizing Radiohead

Flight 404's take on Radiohead's 'Weird Fishes' using Processing.

See the Case Study

Microsoft Live

For the re-launch of Microsoft Windows Live platform, Firstborn was approached by Emmy Award Winning studio Digital Kitchen and The Wexley School for Girls to create a generative art exhibition in honor of Operation Smile, a not-for-profit, volunteer medical services organization that provides reconstructive facial surgery to children and adults.

See the Case Study

Some Processing Resources

Further Reading

NEVER SLEEP: Graduating to Graphic Design

April 06, 2009

NEVER SLEEP: Graduating to ...

by Andre Andreev

0979180015

Universal Principles of Design

December 11, 2008

Universal Principles of Design

by William Lidwell

1592530079

Comments

5 Comments

Ryan John

Ryan John says:

June 17, 2011

Useful information for video content production.

Ryan John

Ryan John says:

June 17, 2011

I link to you tube content at my airplane simulator blog. Might be interesting to try this for some self produced content.

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Dennis Eusebio

Dennis Eusebio says:

February 06, 2009

Another cool resource for inspiration for this type of design is:

We Feel Fine

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