i dont know if its a good idea...call me crazy, but i once did a workshop with Matthew Biederman on PD using VNC (a remote desktop app) and skype...Matthew was in LA and the students and I were in Canada.
matthew operated the PD on the projector in our room through VNC, so we also heard all the audio created via the patch. It worked _very_ well because VNC only refreshes the screen where it needs to be redrawn hence it is ultra light weight and fast over a network connection when it only needs to redraw pd boxes the students could easily talk directly to Matthew from where they were sitting via the skype session (they each had a computer with pd running so they could emulate the lesson)..the local tutor (me) then went round from student to student checking all was good but generally the students spoke directly to Matthew might be worth thinking about? it could be cool to have a local tutor and guest international tutors for specific lessons? Also, of interest is Ian Clothier just suggested a remote workshop using floss manuals as the course material and doing a virtual course...this might link in somehow... adam On Thu, 2007-07-12 at 11:19 +0200, Julian Oliver wrote: > ..on or around Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 09:04:55AM +0900, Karl D.D. Willis said: > > I have used Max/Msp/Jitter for some time but would love to see PD > > grow and grow. > > When I first looked at PD several years ago, GEM was still pretty > > funky to work with and Jitter was solid. > > > > But Max/Msp/Jitter is not so easy to teach. > > i've taught PD with good results on a few occassions. if you work slow > and cover base concepts in a non-rarefied language people can be up and > running in a few days. some people have difficulty with concepts > such as 'variables' or conditional tests so i found starting with a > primer on the basics of programming - using PD in examples - gives them > enough to design with greater independence and imagination later. > > Derek Holzer teaches PD very often and is now something of an authority > on the topic. perhaps writing to Derek (as Adam suggests) could be a good > start to thinking about building a small course around it? > > > I have tried myself and another long time user/object maker is > > currently teaching it here in Tokyo and told me it was a lot more > > difficult than it seems. > > > > What is huge here is Processing. They recently launched the first > > book about Processing (in Japanese no less) and had a launch demo/ > > event that was completely packed out. > > There are now several (English) books on Processing available too: > > http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Programming-Handbook-Designers- > > Artists/dp/0262182629/ > > http://www.amazon.com/Processing-Creative-Coding-Computational- > > Foundation/dp/159059617X/ > > > > But yeah, it is simple to learn, it's sauce is open, it's > > documentation is great, you can graduate to programming in Java, it > > plays well with Arduino... > > But then, it's a bit slow for computer vision, it's interface is > > quirky, you actually have to write real 'code' rather than move cool > > blocks round screen... > > > > i also think Processing is great but it suffers the Java misnomer > of build-once-run-anywhere. it is also very processor intensive: AFAIK > it doesn't yet exploit the richness of modern GPU's, so all actual > processing is CPU side. > > more-so, it's only really good for graphics development. PD or Max/MSP are > really useful for network-wide messaging, real-world to digital interfacing, > number shaping, signal-processing etc. > > that said, i think Processing is a far better context for for teaching > graphics programming and object-orientation in general. > > relatedly, one very fine 'framework' you might like to look into is: > > http://openframeworks.cc/ > > the interface is C++, which isn't perhaps so great for starting out with > programming of course.. > > another is vvvv > > http://vvvv.org/tiki-index.php > > but it is all DirectX/Windows which greatly limits it's usefulness. > > another issue here - one not covered enough - surrounds the ethics of > teaching people software many/most will have to steal to use. > on more than one occassion i've seen a Max/MSP teacher handing out cracked > copies of the program to students. > > this of course is no different from multimedia courses in NZ (and elsewhere) > requiring students to somehow 'aquire' NZ1000.00 worth of software to > complete a degree they've already paid for.. > > julian > Madrid, Spain > -- adam hyde 'free as in media' ~/.nl http://www.flossmanuals.net http://www.simpel.cc http://www.radioqualia.net _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
