Explore New Ways to Play with Data!
19 February 2019
The Center for Digital Humanities (CDH) and the Council on Science and Technology (CST) invite you to come play with us!
This Thursday, February 21, at the CDH (Firestone Library, B Floor), 12-1:20 pm, we are offering a hands-on workshop for non-programmers and beginners to learn “creative coding,” or computer programming that is creative, expressive, and experimental.
It’s a rare chance to “play with data” without worrying about specific outcomes, and it promises to be a productive experience where beginners can get comfortable exploring data on a small scale. Our goal is to encourage creative thinking about the range of ways we can represent and interact with data, rather than relying on the same familiar tools and approaches to data visualization.
We’ll make use of the p5.js web editor, which means you don’t even have to install any tools - just bring a laptop. p5.js - a JavaScript library based on the language Processing - is designed to make coding accessible for artists, designers, educators, and beginners.
In this first session of a 2-part series, participants will “code along” to learn the basics of sketching with p5.js and work towards producing a simple visualization that maps data points to the size, shape, or placement of shapes or texts.
In the second session on Thursday, February 28, we’ll review what we learned in the first session and work towards a visualization inspired by a “warming stripes” climate change visualization based on participants’ choice of CDH project or Princeton University Library collection data. The second workshop will be held in the CST Studio Lab, a space geared towards connecting art and humanities with technology.
Aatish Bhatia (Associate Director, CST Engineering Education) and Sharon De La Cruz (Assistant Director, CST StudioLab Initiatives) will be leading these workshops, encouraging participants to think creatively about the range of possibilities for expression and experimentation with data.
