..on or around Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 12:55:47PM +0200, adam hyde said: > 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? >
i think it's a good solution in the case there aren't people in Wellington that know the tools. someone locally in NZ could act as a tutor, bringing themselves up to speed with PD first by reading manuals and playing around. perhaps the remote experts could reccommend course-material so the tutors could become familiar with the lesson contexts. one or more remote experts could then steer the lessons and povide for Q and A. julian Madrid, Spain. > > > 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 > -- http://julianoliver.com http://selectparks.net emails containing HTML will not be read. _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
