Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art

https://whitney.org/exhibitions/programmed#exhibition-artworks

I went to the Whitney Museum with my Creative Coding class last Friday to see the Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art exhibition. It’s interesting to see how one can integrate computer science and art to create various forms of art statements. I’m particularly impressed by the piece created by W. Bradford Paley called Code Profiles.

In this piece, Paley showcased how computer programme language is read by average people (reading line by line), programmers (their thought process of jumping between different sections of the code), and computers (how the computer executes the code thousands of times within seconds).

I think this is a super cool piece because it shows visually how people (and computer) in different roles think and approach the same material in such different ways. Further, this piece also demonstrates how computers can achieve things that we as humans can never be able to do (reading codes and executing them in such profound speed). After watching this piece, it prompted me to think more closely on how I can create values and bring goodness to the society in ways that cannot be replaced by computers’ efficiency.

I’ve heard people said that computers can never replace human as they do not understand the intricacy of human emotions, sentiments, and humanity. However, there are programmes out there that are able to create poems after studying and analyzing large quantity of poems written by human (such as: Bot Poet).

I do believe that we as human are still irreplaceable because we have compassion and empathy, and those are some of the qualities that prompts us to wanting to do more to help others, voluntarily without asking for pay backs. And these are also the qualities that can actually make the world a better place, or at least trying to. Even though there are struggles and arguments along the way, but I think the hardship along the way that is not so perfect is also what makes us connect with each other more. So by combining the power of computers and our compassion, we can create a better environment for everyone.