CS as an Approach

Martin: What if Coding Systems wouldn’t be us but a term that describes a specific way how to approach system design with code? Who would use it and what would be their objective?

Tim: In Europe, we are in a state of permanent indecision when it comes to information technology. Innovations from America and China have flooded our markets and the feeling still seems to prevail that we don’t really need to worry about digitalization because others are always much faster anyway. But now we are facing a dilemma, because the democratic self-correction mechanisms do not work if the rules are dictated from outside.

What gives me hope are the many debates about infotech that have been going on since 2022. I even see an aesthetic shift. And I sense a soft European spirit of optimism and new courage to put infotech and AI in their place and set clear boundaries. As a next step, we in Europe should finally catch up on the homework from the last few decades. From my point of view, programming in the more digestible form of Creative Coding should be understood as an elementary cultural technique, just like reading, writing and math.¹

I believe that we can make a contribution here with Coding Systems. We already have an aesthetic on offer that fits in with these times and can embody a technological spirit of optimism. We don’t achieve this with cheap filters from the Creative Suite, but with systems that are programmed. This creates an authentic visual language that can make a cultural contribution.

What do you think about this?

This creates an authentic visual language that can make a cultural contribution.

Martin: As I see it, Coding Systems or systems coding, is an approach that makes you aware of the codes we use to describe the systems we design. Both, code and systems are often invisible, but profoundly shape how we think and act in this world. As Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”² I would argue that this applies to design too. The tools we use shape the way we design and the way we design shape us. If we use black box technology as tools we lose the opportunity to question them. Taking the time to understand coding and system design, is questioning how we think and act at the root. 

Taking the time to understand coding and system design is questioning how we think and act at the root.

1. Jochen Viehoff, Georg Trogemann – code@art ↩︎
2. “On the night of May 10, 1941, with one of the last bombs of the last serious raid, our House of Commons was destroyed by the violence of the enemy, and we have now to consider whether we should build it up again, and how, and when. We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us. Having dwelt and served for more than forty years in the late Chamber, and having derived very great pleasure and advantage therefrom, I, naturally, should like to see it restored in all essentials to its old form, convenience and dignity.” Winston Churchill, London, 28 October 1943 ↩︎