Subject	1. A Brief Introduction
From	David
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Processing Processing

This workshop will introduce fundamental technical and critical skills to engage the computer on its own terms and in its own language. Three short assignments exploring basic concepts of computer programming are designed to foster an understanding of the softwares, protocols and languages which construct a computer. The workshop will use Processing, an open source Java-based programming language and environment created to teach fundamentals of programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook. Complex computer programs can be (and usually are) built in an ad-hoc fashion, using smaller pieces of existing or free software. It is exactly this ‘string and sealing wax approach,’ as British designer Anthony Froshaug once described, which can yield work that is not over-determined by existing commercial software packages nor limited by production techniques. To this end, students will use existing Processing projects -- modifying, taking apart and re-using the code and structures to produce their own projects. In the process, they will gain an understanding of fundamental programming methodologies and a specific facility with Processing to explore concise programmatic experiments.

As the architect who also knows about software, you can reclaim an intimate relationship with not only the design but also the means of production for your work. The goal is to understand the computer as a simultaneous site of design, of production and of distribution; and this collapse of functions at one place and in real-time allows the creation of computational forms, models and organizations that are constantly rearranging, re-configuring and recalculating.

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