Processing the Game of Life Workshop
Workshop Description
Conway’s Game of Life is a logic game represented through an animation of moving “cells” on a grid. In this beginner-friendly workshop, participants are introduced to the Game of Life as an entry point for discussing how inequality can affect social outcomes. Participants are given an animation of the Game of Life implemented as a p5.js sketch, and created new social and cultural rules for the game that result in new animated patterns, framing this research with the social design tool poieto. Through these exercises, participants gain a critical understanding of the Game of Life and learn how to manipulate video animations with p5.js.
Essential Questions
How are our own real-life social conditions informed by those of our neighbours?
How can data be used as a design material?
How can differences in our data change our understanding of an experience?
Game of Life animation in p5.js. Image courtesy of Hailey Mah.
October 18, 2020
Presented as part of POWRPLNT’s Power Up
Workshop presented by Sarah Cheung, Hailey Mah, Nicci Yin, Stephanie Marie Cedeño and Christine Meinders
Power Up, presented by POWRPLNT, in collaboration with FEMINIST AI™, ESS, THE CODING TRAIN, and THE PROCESSING FOUNDATION and hosted by OLIVIA MCKAYLA ROSS is a festival of artist-led engagement with technology that was held on October 17-18, 2020. Read more about Power Up here.
Power Up flyer, courtesy of POWRPLNT
April 10, 2021
Presented as part of TeenTechSF’s STEM Inclusivity Forum
Workshop presented by Sarah Cheung and Hailey Mah.
The TeenTechSF STEM Inclusivity Forum, “Crossing the Digital Divide”, is a one-day, youth-led event featuring interactive STEM workshops, networking opportunities, and keynote speakers. With an emphasis on diversity, teens around the world learn the intersection between tech and other fields such as politics and health. It was held on April 10, 2020. Learn more about TeenTechSF here.