creative-coding

Steal like an Rtist: Creative Coding in R

posit::conf 2023

by Ijeamaka Anyene Fumagalli and Sharla Gelfand

:spiral_calendar: September 18, 2023
:alarm_clock: 09:00 - 17:00
:writing_hand: pos.it/conf
:speaking_head: GitHub Discussions

Overview

R is a tool for data analysis, but also can be used for self expression. This workshop will be an introduction to creative coding in R in order to make visual art. We will take an inspiration-first approach, using compelling pieces to discuss and learn the techniques that shape the work. This workshop takes guidance from its namesake, the book “Steal Like An Artist” by Austin Kleon - once we have identified and learned to recreate existing works, we will cover how to take this inspiration and transform, remix, or reinterpret it in the pursuit of developing our own work and artistic styles.

This workshop is hands on and will cover colour theory and manipulation, a reintroduction of the data frame as the foundation for creating art (instead of just for analyzing data!), using ggplot2 as an artistic canvas, creating basic and specialized shapes, tiling and pattern making, developing your own functions and using iteration. We will also discuss how to use controlled randomness to convert a standalone piece into a generative art system that can produce many distinct outputs. Creative coding may seem a world apart from data analysis, but we see a large overlap and intersection of the skills used in both, not to mention the creative muscles that are already used in data visualization.

This workshop is for you if you…

Prework

We’ve set up a Posit Cloud environment with all of our workshop packages and content - this has what’s needed for doing exercises in the workshop, as well as the code that accompanies all of our slides. If you’re participating in the workshop, you’ll have received the link in an email. Click the link and set up a Posit Cloud account if you don’t already have one, then click “Yes” to join the space. If you’re going with this option, please join the space beforehand and then just bring a laptop that can connect to the conference WiFi.

If you’d rather work locally on your own RStudio, then we ask that you please come with the required packages and content downloaded. The code to install the packages and download the content is here.

Schedule

Time Activity
09:00 - 09:15 Introduction
09:15 - 09:30 Steal like an artist
09:30 - 10:30 Homage to the square by Josef Albers
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 - 12:30 o.T. (carré noir) by Vera Molnár
12:30 - 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 - 15:00 Riso Grids by Ryan Miglinczy
15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break
15:30 - 17:00 Infinite Truchet by Roni Kaufman
16:45 - 17:00 Wrap-Up

Instructors

Ijeamaka Anyene Fumagalli (she/her) is a full-time senior data analyst in the healthcare space and a free time computational artist. Using code, mainly the R programming language, she creates data art and generative art systems. She loves all things grid based, minimal, and geometric which naturally led to her love for textile arts as well.

Sharla Gelfand (they/them) is a freelance statistician, software developer, and artist with interests in web development, generative art, and textile arts. Their work explores the play between art created by a computer and by hand, creating generative art that looks like it could have been made by hand (like a textile, drawing, or painting), and making physical art based on data or outputs of a generative system, exploring the strengths and limitations of each.

Code of Conduct

Please review the code of conduct that we will be following for this workshop and for the conference.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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