Ask HN: Hacker Artists?

4 points by waru 15 years ago | 11 comments

I know there are a lot of people on here who aren't strictly computer programmers; I think in one post someone described the "hackers" of "hacker news" as "creative, curious, practical, and hardworking people who struggle with the confines of bureaucracy and traditional corporate jobs" (ie people best suited for start-ups). By that definition I am by all means a hacker.

But the thing I'm most passionate about is making images and visuals, ie art (not graphic design or web design). From what I've seen of the "art world" and "fine art," its not the place for me. I feel like I have zero in common with most artists I meet; I like working hard, making things, and learning skills more than sitting around talking about concepts. My friends have almost always been programmers and "techie" types, not other artists or "fuzzy" types.

So I was wondering if anyone else here is an artist or creator or whatever you wanna call it. I'd be interested in hearing how you balance your expressive side with your rational, non-BS hacker side, and in what kind of career you're pursuing.

The only solution I've been able to come up with is starting my own company where I'm in charge of the art side of things (ie a video game company that requires graphics and what not).

If any of this rang a bell for you, feel free to send me a message. Thanks.

mahdireilly 15 years ago |

I am facing the same challenge. I grew up in art museums and libraries, but fell in love with computer science in college. I took literature and art classes when possible, but due to my demanding CS program I did not get to explore nearly what I wanted to.

Furthermore, I found myself surrounded by engineers who rarely shared my interest. In spite of this I continued moonlighting my obsessions and have grown a library of 7 full shelfs (excluding school books, library checkouts, and kindle downloads) and cases of art supplies.

It's common with programmers to look down on wannabe artists that do not adhere to strict logic in creation or conversations. (Just try asking an artist what they were trying to achieve with their piece. Your answer will be a glare of pity mixed with disgust. I often find, thought not always, this is a diversion tactic because the concept is to "fuzzy" to convince anyone of it).

But when you strip Great Art to its pure essence you will discover a philosophical theory that adheres to a form of logic. We are not completely in the wrong to view this with skepticism since many pseudo-artists can not see this, let alone create it themselves; their only option is to fake it and hope their bravado convinces other. With programming we have no such luxury, if you are incompetent no level of bullshit will make your design work.

This leads me to my current situation where I am trying to find a way to integrate my love of programming with my innate drive to explore beyond the limitations imposed by my code. For now this means waking at 5am, writing for 3-4 hours, going to work until 7, writing a few more hours, then sleep.

Believe it or not, this regiment actually makes me a better programmer. I find myself not only more relaxed during the day, but often am able to rethink my solution and identify flaws instead of powering into the code as I once did.

I am not sure this helped, but my main message was that learning to think about things in a different way gives you a versatility that manifests in ways you may not anticipate. In my case, I feel it helped me be a better coder. (Think of it as studying lisp even though you primarily code in C. Its an exercise that gives your brain flexibility)

stratospark 15 years ago |

Detrus mentioned Processing and openFrameworks. Basically programming languages for visual artists.

Also Maker Faire for artsy DIY and hardware stuff: http://makerfaire.com/

Zer01, a Bay Area art/technology network: http://zero1.org/

I volunteer for those last two, send me a message if you're in the Bay Area and want to chat! I'm definitely a techie software engineer, but I'm fascinated by art, good design, and grand ideas about anything =)

waru 15 years ago | |

Thanks, I'm not in the Bay Area now but planning to move there in the next year. I'll definitely be looking more into both of those.

Detrus 15 years ago |

I used to make pretty pictures. The work from years ago:

http://detrus.nivr.net/ http://detrus.nivr.net/space/thumbfolio/AS2.html

Back in 2003 I was inspired by the likes of http://www.flight404.com and gmunk (who recently worked on the tron2 movie http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178). I became a regular designer/production monkey for a while, before getting serious about programming, trying a UX A/B template startup.

There's a lot of programmer artists in the http://processing.org/ and open frameworks world. Probably a bigger movement there than the no-code digital art movement of the early 00's, which flight404 was also part of.

I heard one guy talk about a studio job doing processing style exhibitions, mentioned it doesn't pay a lot. Flight404 popularized the trend and had/has a hard time making money from it.

waru 15 years ago | |

Thanks, I appreciate all the links and information. Flight404 looks really neat.

thesystemis 15 years ago |

I like the fuzzy and the techy. I am an artist who works with code, and creates performances, installations, etc. I find it helpful to construct projects that have a good balance of different skill sets - engineer, artist, craftsperson.

I'm also big advocate for the idea that art is a kind of research, that artists are researchers just like scientists, ie, the same way a car company would have an R&D department thinking of future cars, artists are a kind of R&D department for humanity thinking of possible futures (and ways of understanding our present).

Some links to my work

http://thesystemis.com http://eyewriter.org http://yesyesno.com

waru 15 years ago | |

I had never thought about it in exactly that kind of way, of artists being researchers just like scientists, but I have to say I totally agree. Thanks for the links; Lights On! was mesmerizing.

agentgo 15 years ago |

Great to hear that there are others out there like me. Normal artists are too "touchy feely" for me. I thrive on art and creating, but not in the typical "I notice your oeuvre is monochromatic." sort of way.

I've developed a digital metrics application for my current employer that polls data from several sources, and presents it in an easy to digest infographic for employees.

zafka 15 years ago |

I have been playing this game for over 15 years now. I am very close to shutting down a very nice Gallery that I have nursed along for about 10 years. But... I feel it is only an intermission. Feel free to give me a yell, I will fill you in on the gory details.

MaysonL 15 years ago |

Takeshi Yamamiya at VPRI is pretty good at both art and programming: see his page http://metatoys.org/propella/en/

waru 15 years ago | |

That's funny, I'm in Kyoto now and just saw his "Eggs of Moebius" on Youtube. Thanks.