Foreword

There is a magical line that separates artist from artisana line conceived by a spark of creativity but carved, laboriously, by boundless passion, energy, and dedication. The artist exudes an envious ability to simultaneously inspire awe, impart experience, and evoke emotion in others. Whereas once the title was reserved for the master painter, sculptor, or architect, we now have a wider appreciation of what comprises art and thus what comprises the artist.

A mere century ago, we saw films as absolute, objective slices of realityas documents devoid of artistry. Today, we can appreciate their subjective nature and the many intricacies that separate a master work from a home movie. This was not always so. When Louis and Auguste Lumiere first showed their film of the arrival of an express train at Lyons station, the audience fled the theater in terror, afraid for their lives at the sight of the oncoming train. Today, we know better. We know how to read film. We are film-literate. But we cannot yet say the same thing about programming.

Today, we look upon programming as a purely technical pursuit. We talk of a divide between the creative and the technical, and lump programmers in the latter. The programmer is today as the filmmaker was early last century: an artist toiling in relative obscurity, awaiting a code-literate society to appreciate the nuances of her art. Will it take a century for this happen? I dont think so.

Thanks to programmer- artists like Keith Peters, we are seeing bridges being built between the realms of programming and the visual arts, leading to a growing social understanding and appreciation for the art behind programming. Keiths code is visual, alive , pulsing , breathing , growing, changingmany times in wholly unpredictable, unique, and wonderful ways. Variables, statements, loops , methods , and classes combine to create emotive, moving experiences that take us beyond our everyday experience to discover new worlds made entirely of light and sound.

This is not a book about programming; its about magic. Within its covers you will find the potions and spells that will hopefully lead you on your own artistic journey of programming. Welcome artist, programmer, magician. Get ready for an amazing adventure!

Aral Balkan
September 12, 2005
Brighton, England