In the era when our lives are determined by algorithms and Big Data, there is a need for new forms of literacy, which connect computing, mathematics, and art. The openly and freely licensed internet course Algorithmic Art, intended for high school students and teachers, is conceived as an answer to this need.
Algorithmic art is adapted to the official education program in Serbia and is primarily intended for second and third grade high school students and teachers of mathematics, computer science, and visual art. It can be equally interesting and useful for everyone else who wants to more easily master mathematical problems or simply create new media forms using computer code (animations, interactive installations, games, etc). The course is written in popular language, with carefully selected interesting illustrations and examples. Currently, the course exists only in Serbian language.
The course utilizes the p5.js technology. It is a JavaScript library made for artists, designers, writers, musicians, architects, and amateurs. It came out of the Processing Foundation.
Course topics include Perlin noise, Truchet tiles, the art of Sol LeWitt and Jonathan Harris, various visualization techniques of time and space, as well as one lesson about trigonometry for artists and designers. These are the basics of software practices used by digital artists and designers. At its core lies the problem of transmedia literacy, the kind of multifaceted literacy without which is impossible to address the complex systems of our time.
I personally believe that the best among high school students, who now get interested in digital and algorithmic art, will one day be able to invent completely new occupations, to not only create new things, but also new realities.
The course was written by Aleksandra Jovanić, Milena Marić, Ivan Anić and me. Production: Petlja Foundation, Unicef and the Digital Serbia Initiative. ■
