The Aesthetics of Generative Code

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Written by Geoff Cox, Alex McLean, Adrian Ward

Aesthetics are broadly defined as pertaining to material things perceptible by the senses

The aesthetic value of code lies within its execution, not just its form, to appreciate generative code, first the actions of the code must be understood as well as the experience of the action.

In this read I enjoyed how the author(s) compared and closely related the art of poetry to code; how code can be written as a form of poetry, or at least this was my interpretation of the read. "By analogy, generative code has poetic qualities, as it does not operate in a single moment in time and space but as a series of consecutive 'actions' that are repeatable, the outcome of which might be imagined in different contexts."

An example given:

if ((light eq dark) && (dark eq light)
   && ($blaze_of_night{moon} == black_hole)
   && ($ravens_wing{bright} == $tin{bright})){
 my $love = $you = $sin{darkness} + 1;
};
If light were dark and dark were light
The moon a black hole in the blaze of night
A raven's wing as bright as tin
Then you, my love, would be darker than sin.

 But code is not poetry as stated in the read, but works similarly in-terms of execution, and not just its written form. 

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