Programming Interactivity

Make cool stuff. If you're a designer or artist without a lot of programming experience, this book will teach you to work with 2D and 3D graphics, sound, physical interaction, and electronic circuitry to create all sorts of interesting and compelling experiences -- online and off. Programming Interactivity explains programming and electrical engineering basics, and introduces three freely available tools created specifically for artists and designers: *Processing, a Java-based programming language and environment for building projects on the desktop, Web, or mobile phones *Arduino, a system that integrates a microcomputer prototyping board, IDE, and programming language for creating your own hardware and controls *OpenFrameworks, a coding framework simplified for designers and artists, using the powerful C++ programming language BTW, you don't have to wait until you finish the book to actually make something. You'll get working code samples you can use right away, along with the background and technical information you need to design, program, build, and troubleshoot your own projects. The cutting edge design techniques and discussions with leading artists and designers will give you the tools and inspiration to let your imagination take flight.

Joshua Noble is a consultant, freelance developer and Rich Internet Application designer, based out of Brooklyn, who most recently worked at the popular RIA design/dev firm Schematic, Inc. He's the lead-author of O'Reilly title Flex 3 Cookbook (released May 2008).

As an undergraduate student Joshua Noble studied fine arts and began a graduate program studying interactive art, teaching himself programming and electronics using available resources on the internet. After school, he began teaching coding to art and design students interested in interactive design. As a student and later professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston he found an acute need for a book that bridged the technical aspects of making artworks that integrated programming and computing and some of the theoretical and conceptual aspects of these kinds of works. He's worked extensively for several years with each of the tools discussed in this book and has taught the subject formally and informally both to friends and at colleges.