Art and Computers (5 lighting talks)

Overview:

1. Dave Strenski is talking on Koch snowflakes fractal,
2. Neil Clennan is talking on DAZ Studio 3D,
3. Garrett Openshaw is talking on the open source computer music software, Pure Data,
4. Filippo Vitale is talking on Functional Programming demoscene-style raymarching,
5. Angela Frakes is talking on video installation piece by Cory Arcangel called Super Mario Clouds.

Details:
1)
Back in 1986, Dave was using a Compaq Luggable with a 1200 baud modem to dial into the Cray computers at Los Alamos National Lab. During the weekends he would unleash this 640 kilobyte, 4.77MHz 8088 beast with FORTRAN-77 to draw pictures of Koch fractals on an Epson dot matrix printer. This talk will be part history, making the most of what you have and an updated version that runs in seconds with Java.
About the presenter:
Dave has degrees in Surveying, Civil, and Mechanical Engineering and spent that last 30+ years playing with computers. Currently he's a Principal Engineer at Cray Inc (cray.com), living and working in Ypsilanti. His hobby is playing with solar power (solarypsi.org).

DAZ Studio is not really 3D modeling software, nor is it simply rendering software, but more of the 3D rendering equivalent of a photographer’s studio. In his presentation, Neil will take you on a quick trip through a DAZ Studio 3D project from start to finish. Along the way, you’ll be introduced to the basic concepts of bringing a scene together and creating a finished render; adding 3D models, posing them, providing lighting, and rendering the scene.
About the presenter:
Neil has spent nearly 30 years providing IT support at the University of Michigan, and now runs his own business, MyMacBuddy.com. DAZ Studio is just a hobby, but one he devotes many hours to.

Pure Data is a visual programming language for digital signal processing and music composition. The lightning talk will introduce the basic programming elements and demonstrate how to compose a non-deterministic, ambient soundscapes.
About the presenter:
Garrett is a software developer in Ann Arbor, currently working at Arbor Networks. Before software, Garrett earned a music performance degree in violin and worked as a sound engineer in Northeast Ohio.

Filippo has always been fascinated by the demoscene: short, real-time generated audiovisual demos, usually in very, very small executables. I have recently implemented an approximated Sphere Tracing algorithm based on a demo made by p01 (demoscene artist) and with this short talk I would like to give you an overview of this Ray Marching technique.
About the presenter:
Filippo is a passionate software engineer based in Ann Arbor. When he is not selling FP using Haskell or making homemade pasta, he works at Arbor Networks.

Angela is talking on a video piece by Cory Arcangel called Super Mario Clouds (2002) for which the artist hacked a 1985 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo cartridge and changed the code so that only the sky and clouds were left floating by. Interestingly, Arcangel provides his source code on his personal website. She plans to discuss the process he used to create the work and her interpretation of the piece.
About the presenter:
Angela is a local UX Designer with a background in Art History (she studied at Kalamazoo College where I double majored in Art History and Mathematics).