This is one of the few non-Kindle, non-Audible books in my list for 2016. In general, I found technical books don’t work so well on the Kindle, even when viewed in the Kindle app on an iPad - perhaps it’s something to do with the mobi format. My preference is to purchase technical books direct from the publisher - in this case Manning, although I’ve also purchased from O’Reilly, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Pakt and others. One benefit is that the books are typically DRM free and available in multiple formats - e.g. PDF for viewing on a laptop, ePub for viewing on an iPad. Both the PDF and ePub formats seem to be closer the mobi format to the typesetting and layout you would get in a printed book. - (I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to purchase this book - I’m not, in general, a very artsy person. I guess it’s the idea that we can use algorithms to create something aesthetically pleasing. I learned a lot from this book, even though I have singularly failed to take what I learnt and actually try and create some art. At least I have a better understanding of how to go about it if I decide to give it a go somewhere down the line.
The book is composed of three parts. Part one looks at the overall concept of generative art and introduces the Processing platform which is the tool through will all the techniques in the book are implemented. Processing is a pretty cool platform for visualization - the Processing language is a variant of Java. However, there is now a Python mode for Processing - I generally tried to translate the code in the book to the Python version. Part 2 is about randomness and noise. The ‘aha moment’ for me here was understanding that perfectly straight lines and round circles are not as aesthetically pleasing as those produced by injecting a little noise into the process. Part 3 is about complexity and looks at emergence, autonomy and fractals. Overall a good read and an interesting diversion from enterprise programming.