The Superpower Of Programmatic, Parametric, Algorithmic, Generative, Procedural, Design And Music Composition

In computer world,
the power of infinity is the first lessons we learn.

Be it a while(true){} loop,
or 10 GOTO 10;

The beginning is more than all the superhero stories put together,
and the first step forward is nothing short of extraordinary.

Some of us will be drawn to music, or audio,
others will be called by virtual worlds, or visual.

Ordinarily, that means starting with lmms, or blender,
and that is always neat for a little while.

But there comes a point where you discover,
that you compose music by means of an algorithm that you enjoy.

There comes a point where you discover,
that you model 3D objects by following the same pattern, or algorithm.

And then you ask yourself why should I do all this clicking,
over an over, repeating the same pattern?

What if I wrote a program to do it for me,
the program is not a machine that takes over.

The program is an extension,
to your pattern, to your algorithm, to your way.

If you are on the visual side,
then JSCAD or OpenSCAD is a nice start.

If you are on the audio side,
then Tone.js or Elementary is a nice start.

The audio does split into more than just music,
but for a moment, consider what you have here.

You have endless songs,
that play forever.

That are under the control of a programming language,
a programming language is the real user interface of a computer.

School has been lying to you,
it is a terrible idea to learn how to use Excel, it is a silly program.

When it comes to using a computer the first and foremost,
is learning a high level programming language, so that you can automate things.

The music teacher has lied to you,
you are not supposed to read notes, you are not the machine.

You are the composer,
more than that the year is 2021 now.

We got to get on with the times,
that means pulse trains.

Music class,
is not even in the right time period.

The amount of code required to compose the back beat,
is file and rate, two things.

You don't need to bother with remembering that the train rate is in hertz,
just that the higher the number the faster it goes.

The numbers are between 1 and 8 maybe,
that's part of the real computer the interface.

Real and effective music composition that you can take to a night club is about a full orchestra,
either you have a band or a computer.

It takes very little to put a computer band together,
behold the power of the sequence node.

A proper music tutorial takes two days,
learning programming in the p5 editor, or even atom and elementary same if not less.

You have to use the examples, use the boilerplate, if you choose elementary
don't try to learn programming from the beginning, learn by modifying the boilerplate.

Setting up on something like bandcamp is free, becoming an indie artist is priceless,
you can have your first song ready in 7 days, and your first experimental album out in a month,

But being able to algorithmically get started with fresh albums,
is an amazing way to compose super-fresh and energy packed workout and jogging music.

No matter how good the song is, it lasts about a workout and a half,
if you can consistently deliver fresh material without stressing about it, you got yourself a business going.

Put the money together and build a school,
invest in the labels that your students will create, for a very small percent and put a school on every continent.

If you are a visual artist,
then know that you are not just creating for the computer.

Let us leap into practical applications,
and skip over the programming part that I described in the music section.

Let me ask you, how long will it take you to algorithmically create a concrete apartment building,
say one tenth of the scale as part of an art installation.

Once you feel comfy with boolean modifiers
all you need to do is model some rooms and generate some staircases.

How long would it take to create factory of unseen artworks,
based on interpreting a small part of a random photo, into an alien landscape or even a flotilla of star ships.

How long for a bat-belt, buckle links, and pockets,
and here you can define everything by variable, and randomize the design motif.

And now think about wallets,
how long would it take you to generate few thousand somewhat unique wallet designs, or kits for 3D printing.

Programmatic or Generative Design, inherits your creativity,
it is not machine like.

And it is not as automated as it seems,
the more generations you create, the greater the challenge.

The greater your quest for originality,
and the clearer and more powerful, and more plentiful your algorithms.