Algorithm Ink and ContextFree.js – generative art with Javascript

Technology

Currently Firefox, Safari and Opera have reasonable support for the Canvas HTML element. With IE the only major remaining laggard, there are a lot of people starting to experiment with Javascript’s new graphical capabilities. I mentioned John Resig’s Processing.js library in May, and now Aza Raskin has released the ContextFree.js library, which brings another generative drawing language to web-standards software development.

Besides being pretty, why is ContextFree.js interesting? Because it shows the power of Open web technologies for making graphically-enabled, compelling interaction. The true power of the web revolves around anyone being able to dive in, see what someone else has done, and expand upon it. Canvas lowers the cost of entry to creating graphical mashups and other dynamic, graphical content. It also shows the progress the web has made: a year ago, this demo would not have been possible. Canvas wasn’t ready, and Javascript interpreters weren’t fast enough. Looking at the qualitative difference in speed from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3 indicates the amazing and substantial progress made towards speeding up Javascript since the last major browser release cycle.

ContextFree.js is a Javascript port of the Context Free open source generative art application by Chris Coyne. It basically defines an extremely simple grammar that is designed to generate rule-based artwork with very few lines of code.

Aza has also released the Algorithm Ink website, which uses ContextFree.js to create an open source art gallery. Using Algorithm Ink, you can load, tweak, and share generative art through a web interface. When you see something you like, you can view the source for the artwork and use it in your own creations. Very cool.

ContextFree.js & Algorithm Ink: Making Art with Javascript
ContextFree.js at Google Code
Algorithm Ink
The original Context Free by Chris Coyne
Drawing Graphics with Canvas
Processing.js – visualization library for Javascript

0 thoughts on “Algorithm Ink and ContextFree.js – generative art with Javascript

  1. William Cox says:

    For the greasemoneky noobs out there, a version of that JS script would be helpful. Thanks.

  2. John Kolbert says:

    Try this script I just made quick:

    http://simply-basic.com/posts/1941387

  3. Frequent Flier says:

    I flew through a few airports today, most notably Detroit and this didn’t work.

  4. aloishis says:

    The other good way to do this is to fire up Cain and sniff for computers on the network. Then find one that is moving a lot of packets and spoof his MAC address. This usually works. A lot of airports add your MAC address to the allow list once you have paid, so simply pretending to be someone who has paid will let you on. It only requires 2 programs and both are free.

  5. amatoc.com says:

    This worked at the CVG international airport in cincinnati. Excellent find

  6. muscle building pills says:

    I don’t comment, but after reading through a few of the comments here Free airport WiFi | MAKE.
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    :-P And, if you are writing on other online social sites, I would like to follow anything
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