Codechat is a chat system, developed by artist Pall Thayer, based around code and is intended as a means to discuss the conceptual and aesthetic implications of coding methods in computer-based works of art. What I hope to achieve with this is more open discussion between artists about the importance of code to this type of work. Original comments will inevitable be technical in nature but resulting discussions should gravitate away from the technical towards the conceptual and/or aesthetic, allowing those who do not have an understanding of the code itself to learn about its implications and also allowing them to join in the discussion as it becomes less technical. Hopefully this will help to develope a "language" for discussing coded artwork.

The code being used for this prototype is part of the code for my project, "On Everything" which can be viewed at http://pallit.lhi.is/on_everything This particular piece of code handles the downloading and processing of images that are then fed in chunks to the visual Java applet on the website.

SEE CODECHAT IN ACTION

I've now setup another CodeChat page for the applet that visualizes the data sent by the script above in the same work, On Everything. This is the part of the work that the viewers see in their browsers and is written in Processing. This CodeChat page is at:

http://pallit.lhi.is/~palli/codechat/oneverythingcc2/applet.php

Installation of the system is still slightly complex. Development is currently focussed on simplifying this process. However, if you'd like to download the CodeChat source code for your own use or simply to see how it works, you can download the package here:

download CodeChat source (codechat.tar.gz)

Pall Thayer
August, 2007