#art&&code

When artists use new technologies as their materials, a number of things happen: 1. They discover ways to extend the expressive and communicative range of tools, devices and systems 2. By making connections that are neither necessarily utilitarian nor profitable, they explore potential for diverse human interest and experience 3. They do the cognitive work to make difficult abstractions more legible and fascinating.

Most learn-to-code initiatives do not support this type of creative expression. In many introductory coding activities, students are asked to program the movements of a virtual character navigating through a set of obstacles toward a goal. This approach can help students learn some basic coding concepts, but it doesn’t allow them to express themselves creatively — or develop a long-term engagement with coding. It’s like offering a writing class that teaches only grammar and punctuation without providing students a chance to write their own stories. With Scratch, our goal is for young people to become fluent with coding — not only learning the mechanics and concepts of coding, but also developing their own voice and their ability to express their ideas.

Finally, if the question is ‘do artists need to read such-and-such’ type of literature, the answer is definitely ‘no.’ You never know where ideas come from. I believe in chaos for answers. And the most important thing today, when our tastes are calculated by algorithms, is to find things that you are not looking for. It is always good to follow something that you are not looking for, because if you are looking for something then you are just narrowing, narrowing, narrowing your own perspective. If you only listen to Beyoncé you will only listen to Beyoncé at the end. It is the same for theory, the same for ideas, the same for any material that we need as artists, or curators, or viewers to keep being alive.