As graphic designers embraced the computer decades ago, the mouse became an extension of their hand and a tool to enable creativity in the digital domain. Since the mid 1990s, frameworks have made programming accessible for artists and designers to express themselves, a method commonly referred to as Creative Coding. Dynamic inputs such as chance, data and time, can be harnessed to modify elements of a layout, generate forms, and explore changes across every letter, word, paragraph and page of a book. With a few lines of code, one can quickly go beyond the possibilities of a mouse and embrace generative design. In this workshop we’ll explore basil.js, an open source library, which extends InDesign for creative coding in the spirit of Processing. Released by HGK FHNW Institute for Visual Communication/The Basel School of Design in 2013, basil.js empowers designers to create generative typography and data driven layouts among many other features. No coding experience is required. This workshop is aimed at introducing visual communication practitioners to a new way in which to use their existing tools.
Ted Davis, 1983, is an American media artist / designer / educator based in Basel, Switzerland, where he teaches interaction design and coordinates the UIC/HGK International Master of Design program within the Institute Digital Communication Environments IDCE. His work and teachings explore the volatility of digital media through glitch and reactivating older ‘new media’ through newer programming means. His open source projects (basil.js, XYscope, P5LIVE) enable designers to program within Adobe InDesign, render vector graphics on vector displays, and collaboratively create live coded visuals. With international exhibits, lectures and workshops, he empowers students to take hold of the computer’s ability to design possibilities beyond that of the hand or mouse. teddavis.org
The Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) / The Basel School of Design offers workshops for students, educators and graphic designers.
The workshops afford insights into topical themes of visual communication in a study programme reflecting the rich tradition of the Basel School of Design. Practical exercises with a high level of professionalism form the core of the workshops focus. Reflection as well as contextual knowledge will be conveyed by way of input sessions, allowing participants’ work to be judged within a contemporary, future-oriented context relevant to professional practice. The trinational Rhine River Valley is a unique cultural environment with easy access to France and Germany and to sites such as the Vitra Design Museum (G), the Isenheimer Alter (F), or Ronchamps (F). In Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, Tinguely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Schaulager, and Museum of Contemporary Art are world-renowned. Besides its museums, Basel offers a rich mixture of cultural events.
Registration feeper workshop season: CHF 40.
Booking within one workshop season: 1 week:CHF 900.– 2 weeks:CHF 1700.– 3 weeks:CHF 2400.– 4 weeks:CHF 3000.– 5 weeks:CHF 3500.–
Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)
Visual communication is a tool of knowledge generation in its own right. Visualizations make things perceptible, imaginable and graspable.
FHNW Academy of Art and Design Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) Freilager-Platz 1 Postfach CH-4002 Basel
Institute Digital Communication Environments IDCE
FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern SwitzerlandAcademy of Art and Design,
Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)
High-rise: D 5.03Freilager-Platz 1CH - 4142 Münchenstein near Basel