About
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the people who helped me craft my grad thesis — when this book was a seed of an idea. Friends, colleagues, and mentors: your support and encouragement made this possible.
- Victoria Hackett
- Ramsey Nasser
- Aya Karpinska
- Loretta Wolozin
- Jesse Harding
- Chris Prentice
- Sarah Groff Henneigh-Palermo
- Zach Lieberman
- Justin Bakse
- Bryan Ma
- Nick Montfort
About the Author
Andrew Cotter is a Creative Technologist working as both a practitioner and academic instructor. They've worked for clients across the globe and teach Creative Coding at programs such as the MFA Design + Technology program at Parsons and the Integrated Design and Media program at NYU. They have over a decade of experience working and teaching at (say the line, Bart) the intersection of art and technology.
They've compiled many of their own and students' shared stumbling blocks in learning Creative Coding from the perspective of an artist thrown into the deep end of programming. It is their sincere hope that this book will help others navigate the challenges of learning programming in the service of creative expression.
Author's Intent
While this book is freely available to anyone, it is not for everyone.
This body of work is the result of a great deal of joyful labor on the part of the author, and it is shared freely in the hope that individuals, students, artists, and worker cooperatives will benefit from its use and study in any capacity, commercial and otherwise. The author made this for you.
It is absolutely not intended for use in service of capital, in pursuit of profit for a minority off the labor of others, or by organizations that differentiate their owners and their workers.
If you own such an organization, know that the author believes that you are a bad person, and that you should step aside and allow your enterprise to be run democratically by your employees with equal stake and say in its management. The author did not make this for you, and holds you in contempt.
If you work for such an organization, know that the author believes that you are being exploited, and that you should start organizing towards converting your workplace into a cooperative or unionizing at the very least. The author is on your side, and hopes this software lightens the burden of your labor.
We have nothing to lose but our chains and a better world is possible.