Here it is – my week in review. The four noteworthy events for last week were:

• my participation in the Duckon Science Fiction Convention
• setting up a display of my art
• modifying my Party Lines Processing.js program
• writing a new image painting program

Duckon Science Fiction Convention

First there was the Duckon Science Fiction Convention last weekend. I did a total of 6 hours of programming – 3 panels and 3 presentations. I attended very little programming myself as most of the panels I wanted to see were scheduled at the same time as one of my talks or panels (I think I must be at the top of Murphy’s Who Do I Want to Annoy Today list). There was a good panel on self-publishing that I was able to attend. I also made sure to attend the Masters of Lightning event featuring their amazing singing tesla coils. I can think of no cooler way to make electronic music than with miniature bolts of lightning.

In addition to making music, these masters also zapped willing con-goers (I myself am a past victim). And it wasn’t just con-goers who got zapped with their lightning – so did a selection of CDs. There was one difference though: the CDs did not survive the ordeal.

I had decided not to participate in the con’s art show this year. I did attend the artist’s reception which unfortunately was poorly attended. It seemed to me that this year’s art show was a fair bit smaller than past shows. Hopefully they’ll be able to turn that around in the future. I am also of the opinion that the decision to have the art programming track take place in the same room as the art show was a mistake. While it was a good idea to try and attract traffic to both the art show and the art programming by having them in the same room, it was a bad idea logistically due to the distractions of noise and traffic.

Although I had to miss the Duckon Masquerade (scheduling conflict), I was able to get several photos later that evening of the very lovely Ariela who was dressed in Steampunk fashion. My idea is to use one or more of these photos as the basis for a portrait.

To see what programming I participated in, see my post Duckon Science Fiction Convention Programming

Art Exhibited at Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau

On Monday I installed three of my artworks at the Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau where they will be on display through October 7 2013.

This exhibit is a part of the Northwest Cultural Council Corporate Art Gallery program of which I am a participating artist.

The three works of art I am exhibiting are:

• Sands of Mars
• Forty Two Million Pixel Shark(shown here)
• Life Pulse

Party Lines Processing.js Program

Last Sunday night I published my Party Lines program – created as an assignment for the Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps Coursera class. It subsequently dawned on me that my program had a problem for mobile users – the program required keyboard input. My remedy was to create a new version that used a GUI widget for input rather than the keyboard. It’s a pretty simple program that has the user interacting with a particle system to draw lines. The volume of the associated music is tied to the acceleration of the particles in the system. Note that I included sound as that was one of the requirements for this project.
Check it out: Party Lines Processing.js Sketch
Clever folks will know how to access the program’s source code if they want to see exactly what is going on under the covers.

Test Painter Program

Keeping with the shark theme, I wrote a new image painting program during the week and the shark you see above is one example of its painting possibilities. Just as Photoshop has multiple brushes for users to choose from, so does this program – although for the illustration I used only one of the brushes. I have yet to decide if I will continue to develop this program.

And there you have it. Another week behind me and an unknown but limited number to go.