Info

The first Processing Community Day NYC was held February 2019 at The New School in New York.

Processing Community Day NYC is an independent all volunteer-organized event in cooperation with the Processing Foundation and hundreds of other locally-organized nodes around the world. Processing Community Day NYC 2019 was supported by the Department of Education Computer Science for All (CS4All). The New School provided hosting support, with additional funding from Code + Liberal Arts at Eugene Lang.

Schedule

👍 next to a title indicate talks and workshop events that are especially beginner-friendly.

Check in

9am - 10am

Check in at The New School, University Center Event Cafe. Pre-registration by January 30 required. Coffee and light breakfast will be served

Welcome!

10:00am - 10:20am

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 1

10:20am - 11:00am

• Art, Meditation and Learning to Code in p5.js 👍 - workshop - requires pre-registration
• P5.plot - workshop - requires pre-registration
• Putting yourself on screen 👍 - talk

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 2

11:10am - 11:50am

• Designing Brushes in Processing - workshop - requires pre-registration
• Code + Liberal Arts panel - panel
• Critical Data Visualization 👍 - talk

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 3

12:00pm - 12:40pm

• Philosophy to Pedagogy 👍 - talk
• Low Tech VR Starter Kit 👍 - workshop - requires pre-registration
• Visualizing Museum Collections - workshop - requires pre-registration

Lunch + Meetups

12:40 - 1:20pm

Lunch is time to get food with new friends and to participate in the drop-in coloring computers activity. Our lunch meetup groups are informal and optional lunch groups to make new friends based on the following topics

• Code and Social Justice
• Community Building
• Radical Pedagogy/Radical Learning
• Art + Code
• Toolbuilding
• Crafting With Code
• Game Design
• Sound Art and Music
• Data Visualization
• Open Source Software
• Beginning To Learn To Code

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 4

1:20pm - 2:00pm

• OpenOverSight - talk
• Remember the Spirograph! 👍 - workshop - requires pre-registration
• Open Mic Aesthetic - talk + performance

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 5

2:10pm - 2:50pm

• Interactive Projection Mapping With Processing - workshop - requires pre-registration
• Designing Unplugged CS Lessons - workshop -requires pre-registration
• Critical Interactive Networked Projects 👍 - talk

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 6

3:00pm - 3:40pm

• Pathways to Emerging Tech - talk
• D.I.Y. Synth Ensemble 👍 - talk + performance
• Processing Twitterbots 👍 - workshop -requires pre-registration

Workshops, Panels and Talks Session 7

3:50pm - 4:30pm

• Grandmother Who Codes 👍 - panel
• Building NextStep Resources - talk
• Processing and Sound for Urban Students 👍 - workshop - requires pre-registration

Open Projector Lighting Talks

4:30pm - 5:00pm

The Open Projector is a chance for anyone from the community to present their work to a community of peers and new friends. We'll have a sign-up throughout the day on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants will have 5 minutes to talk about a project, propose an idea, or show a demo of work. BYO Laptop optional.

tortilla stories performance

5:15pm - 5:45pm

Goodbye!

6pm

All are welcome in any talk, workshop or discussion. Workshops require pre-registration. 👍 next to a title indicate events that are especially beginner-friendly.

Talks

Philosophy to Pedagogy 👍

Chrissy Ziccarelli

Social blogging platforms like LiveJournal, Xanga, MySpace, and Neopets (yes, Neopets) are often cited by many as their first experience coding in the early 2000s - especially women. Though there were admittedly fewer resources to learn to code 15 years ago, these sites seem to have had a unique pull on a generation of technologists. What was it about them? In this talk, I argue it because each of these sites allowed users to personalize expression, see immediate results, and share their creations with each other. I'll explore the aspects of these sites that encouraged exploration of coding and how you can build these into your classroom to create lifelong computer science learners.

Critical Interactive Networked Projects

Jonah Brucker-Cohen

Jonah will discuss his projects and work in the theme of “Critical Networked Experience” that challenge and subvert accepted notions of network interaction and socialization. He will discuss our reliance on networks and how we have begun to use them to replace our physical and mental capabilities. Some projects he will discuss include “BumpList”, an email community for the determined, “Killer Route” a GPS navigation system that integrates live crime data, “WSSID” a hacked wireless router that broadcasts the weather, “ContactRot” an iPhone app that challenges our reliance on the cloud, “Alerting Infrastructure!”, a website hit counter that destroys a building, and other projects. He will conclude his talk with a live demo and explanation of “Lively” and “Healing Destinations", two web and mobile based projects that allow for collaborative interaction from cellphones on a shared public screen.

Critical Data Visualization 👍

Will Geary

How can data visualization help to center factual information in a "post-truth" society? This talk will present thoughts on the potential for data visualization to help make complex trends more accessible and to spark dialogue around uncomfortable yet crucial topics. I will discuss my process and learnings behind my work, including my projects on mapping weapons exports ("The United States of Arms"), U.S.-Mexico Border Apprehensions and U.S. Federal Spending.

OpenOversight: Using tech, data, and public records to hold the police accountable

Camille Fassett

Law enforcement have broad authority to surveil, monitor, and collect intelligence about members of the public. Sometimes, they abuse these powers — they deploy surveillance technology inappropriately, or commit acts of violence — but what the public is able to glean about police activities is limited by design. OpenOversight — a database on individual police officers in the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York City — was created to offer a means through which the public can hold law enforcement accountable, since other mechanisms too often fall short. In this talk, I'll discuss how we gather information on police officers — including photographs, misconduct histories, and salaries — through public records and crowdsourced data to build a useful of database that we hope will be useful for public defenders, journalists, and the public.

Building Next-Step Resources

Jeff Thompson

In this talk, I will discuss an open-source, online book I wrote about collision detection. Why build detailed resources outside the context of a school/publisher/existing platform? What assumptions about technical proficiency should we make when presenting technical material? What are the challenges of creating resources that are accessible to beginners but are useful to more experienced programmers? How do you balance presenting the clearest examples vs providing the most efficient code? We'll also discuss a need for a term to replace “self-taught” in the context of programming. This talk will dig into these issues and present an under-the-hood look at how a resource like this is built and maintained.

Pathways to Emerging Tech

Samia Lemfadli with Joe Carrano

This talk will focus on emerging sectors in technology and offer pathways through practical education, workforce development programs and professional development that will help bridge the gap between non-technical people and technologists.

DIY Synth Ensemble: The next step in music education 👍

Michael Sobolak

This talk takes an educational approach to ensembles, making, and coding from the perspective of a music teacher. This session will share an innovative full-spectrum music education experience centering around students creating, performing, and collaborating with instruments of their own design utilizing MIDI protocol and Arduino microcontrollers. I share my own learning experiences, frustrations, resources, and examples in pursuing this avenue of innovation. Come and see, touch, and play with the examples in a musical collaboration to finish the session.

Putting yourself on screen: Literally and Figuratively 👍

Maya Man

What does it mean to translate ourselves into the digital realm? There are a variety of ways that our physical presence may manifest on screen, especially with tools such as Processing. By looking at projects I’ve created, such as Be a Body, this talk first examines the act of turning a person into pixels. The second part of this talk explores the question less literally, with inspiration from the Shirley Chisholm quote: If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. Access to the internet and open source communities has inspired many people to code their own creations and post/host them online! Unsolicited! Using this lens, I highlight the ways in which we can empower individuals, especially those from underrepresented minorities, to participate in the world of new media by putting themselves and their work on screen.

Workshops

Art, Meditation, and Learning to Code in p5 👍

Kelly Brandon

This workshop is designed for beginning coders who wish to use creativity and mindfulness as a springboard to exploring the platform p5js. We will start with a guided drawing meditation from the book “Drawing Your Own Path: 33 Practices at the Intersection of Art and Meditation” by software artist John F. Simon, Jr. The meditation will set the stage for a series of coding exercises in order to use and understand the p5 canvas, its default functions, and the importance of abstraction and pattern recognition to computational thinking. Bring an open mind, paper, pencil, and a computer to this interactive and exploratory workshop.

Processing and Sound for Urban Students 👍

Layla Quinones

In this workshop we will be engaging in creative coding with p5.js and sound. Branching off from the Sound Unit designed by the Software Engineering Program, this workshop focuses on engaging learners in representing sounds and music visually via multiple forms of interactivity. We will be learning how to upload sound files into p5.js, code sound files with various effects from the p5.js sound library, and create visual representations of these sounds that incorporate various interactive options. Most importantly, this workshop also provides tools for teachers to develop units that cover core CS concepts aligned to common core, NGSS and AP CS standards. You will gain a better grasp of p5.js' Sound Library, assessment tools, scaffolds, example problems, vocabulary, protocols for discussion, protocols for collaboration and feedback, and final project ideas that you can share with your learning community. At the end of the workshop there will be an opportunity for a conversation around ideas and highly effective practices to reach a variety of learners, particularly in urban and under represented communities.

Low Tech VR Starter Kit 👍

Leandra Tejedor

This workshop aims to reduce the learning curve and required technology to create virtual reality projects. We’ll cover building for VR in the browser using an easy to learn framework called A-Frame, and discuss other libraries in development. We’ll also cover tangible VR such as drawing and modifying photos to create 360 images with perspective grid paper and look at examples of how artists are using physical objects to create VR experiences. The first hour of the workshop will be spent showing examples of projects that have been created in these ways and short tutorials on these different methods. The last hour will be spent working on your own projects. We'll have VR headsets available, but please bring your own Google Cardboard headsets, or something similar, if you have them.

Remember The Spirograph! 👍

Angela Ferraiolo and students

In this student led workshop, members of the Sarah Lawrence College visual arts course in Drawing Machines will lead participants through the creation of spirographs! First, we will construct one or two small spirographs in cardboard. Then, using what we've learned from those constructions, we will turn to Processing/Java and attempt to translate the idea of the spirograph into code.

Designing Brushes in Processing

Matthew Ortega

The goal of the class will be to learn how to create custom brushes, designing first on paper, and thinking about the set of rules that can help us achieve our design. Over the course of the class, we will also explore topics such as randomness, movement, interaction, and color. This workshop assumes previous experience with Processing.

p5.plot - visualization made easy

Alex Xu and Luke DuBois

This workshop will demonstrate and make use of p5.plot, which takes as its inspiration grammar-of-graphics strategies for data viz (e.g. the R ggplot2 library). The library lets you easily visualize data structures ranging from simple arrays to JSON-structured databases in a variety of plot types. Unlike most Javascript-based "data viz" tools, this requires no use of HTML/CSS (unless you want it) and can be used as a turnkey solution to quickly generate visual plots of information. We'll show some simple strategies for getting, parsing, and visualizing public datasets using the client-side API tools available in p5. Some previous knowledge of p5.js is helpful.

Interactive Projection Mapping with Processing!

Bomani McClendon

In this workshop, the audience will learn how to transform a Processing sketch into an interactive projection installation. We’ll use Syphon to stream the output of a Processing sketch into projection mapping tools, learn how to map our projected sketch onto a unique surface, and make our projection installation interactive by integrating a basic sensor.

Designing Unplugged CS Lessons

Tuan Nguyen

The push towards less screen time in the classroom is increasing, particularly in primary grades. CS educators now face a dilemma: how can you teach computing without computers? This workshop will help educators design unplugged CS lessons. We'll start by discussing CS learning goals and ways to gather evidence of understanding. Then we'll share ideas about using toys, board games, crafts, and more for activities that introduce, clarify, broaden, and reinforce those learning goals. This talk is appropriate for educators not only facing the "no screens" dilemma, but also the budget-conscious, those wanting backup lessons for when tech breaks, and those just looking for ways to shake things up.

coloring computers 👍

pepepépepe !

the coloring computers are non-electronic digital computers that work when you color them according to a simple set of rules. some of these computers compare, others count, and some others allow you to play. in this workshop we'll have several printed copies of these computers. we'll introduce them and do a walkthrough of the rules of play. then we'll have time for coloring them. at the end we'll be able to share and compare our results, to talk about how computers perform complex functions with a combination of simple components, and to discuss the possible roles of computers that are neither efficient nor productive.

Visualizing Museum Collections

Celeste Layne

Visualizing Museum Collections is a first step in an attempt to look at the types of art works people are interested in — by city. The goal is to visualize the collection of the top ten museums in the city and rank their top twenty works by the number of likes. Especially in this age of immersive experiences by artists such as Pipilotti Rist and Yayoi Kusama, we'll expand this project beyond the Met Museums’ collection and visualize the data on a city wide level.

Processing 💖 Twitterbots 👍

Matthew R. F. Balousek

Learn how to connect a Processing program to Twitter! This workshop will cover the basics of working with the Twitter API, as well as some best practices for botmaking and structuring Processing programs.

Discussions

Grandmother Who Codes 👍

Jeanine Meyer, Irina Shablinsky and Bozana Predojevic

Programming often is viewed as a place with very few women and mostly young people. Women have been in or around computing for many, many years. Both of us started in mathematics.  One has some of her education in Russia and we both had work in bio-medical applications. The number of women in the computing field now is fewer than it has been and barriers to entry now appear to be greater. Our experiences are proof that women have thrived in the field. We invite all to a conversation on underrepresented groups in computing. We will demonstrate our use of family media in our teaching; share advice that we have been given that we did or did not take; discuss how the programming field got to this state; how it is different outside of the USA; and what can be done moving forward to increase diversity. Spoiler: we believe the use of Processing, especially as a first programming language, and a focus on problem domains such as game creation and artistic interactions are positive actions. Downplaying the role of programming or mathematics is misguided. Please join the conversation.

Code + Liberal Arts

Jennifer Wilson with colleagues at Eugene Lang Art + Code, along with Ursula Wolz

In this facilitated discussion, we will explore the ways in which code-based activities can be integrated within a liberal arts framework. At Lang College, we have been experimenting with courses in the Arts; Culture and Media; the Politics Department; Urban Studies; Mathematics; and the Writing program that help students gain coding skills but embed this work in the larger questions and research practices of their underlying disciplines. More broadly, these courses also help them deepen their understanding of the use of algorithmic systems, and to embrace questions of access, equity and social justice. We have also developed a list of common shared objectives for all these courses. We will share some of our experiences as teachers at Lang and other liberal arts colleges, and then open the conversation to others interested in brainstorming about how an understanding of coding and computational thinking can be built into courses within more traditional liberal arts disciplines.

Performances

tortilla stories 👍

melissa orozco

tortillas accompany the life of mexican people. when migrating from mexico to the united states, what happens to that connection? to what’s left behind? to what’s confronted? and to what begins? if tortillas could talk… what would they tell us. tortilla stories is a multimedia performative documentary about migration and identity. it is based on collected stories of mexican people that migrated to the united states. these stories are played back from handmade tortillas in turntables, blended by a tortilla maker and collector.

Open Mic Aesthetic: A musical journey with p5.Sound library 👍

Liam Baum

This talk will be in the spirit of a performance at an open mic. Open mics are a place where musicians and artists often go to test out their works in progress in a relatively judgement free space. I hope to encourage and inspire others to share their ideas with the community even if they don’t necessarily feel they are ready. I will be sharing the story of my journey in learning creative coding over the past 2 years through musical performances with p5 sketches and the p5.sound library. Many of these sketches are used in tandem with other libraries such as p5.Speech, ml5.js and p5OSC and hardware such as Funkey Funkey and Arduino.

Community Time

Open Projector Lightning Talks

In the spirit of an open mic event, Processing Community Day NYC will include an Open Projector session in the afternoon where anyone will be able to sign up for short timeslots up to 5 minutes in length to present a project, artwork or idea. Opportunity to sign up during check-in at the event on a first come first served basis until we are full.

Meals

Thanks to the generous support of the Department of Education, Computer Science For All (CS4ALL), free meals will be provided to all who register for free by January 30. When you check in at Processing Community Day you will be assigned a group to (optionally) join for lunch, based around an area of mutual interest. While this time won't be structured, you are encouraged to make new friends, have discussions, and maybe spark a collaborative idea or two.