Look at the code - the source text of any program, as a type of material. See the effects of the code as a material manifestation.
This exhibition 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.
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.
Screens have created a distance from the environment that has shaped us. 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. These objects will engage us with experience that encourages interaction that acts in accordance to how the world, physically and kinetically, is experienced.
This exhibition shows how Creative Coding crosses the boundaries between art, design and science. 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. 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. We 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.
