For those that aren't familiar with generative art, it is the process of creating something visually appealing through code. With truly endless possibilities, using code to create art has become one of my favorite hobbies outside of work. I think generative art promises many benefits, both personally and professionally, and I've tried to list a few of the ones I've experienced below.
Impress Recruiters: I think it's very important to have at least a few projects that result in something physical or visual. Explaining your side projects to a recruiter is an extremely important part of the hiring process and generating interest quickly is paramount. With a generative art project, I get to talk about my programming process alongside an intriguing visual product. I'm not saying you should only have art projects, but having at least a few couldn't hurt.
Motivate Yourself: In my personal experience with programming, most of my work never really manifests into something physical that I can appreciate. With generative art, I'm able to create my own prints and appreciate the output of my code in an entirely new way. It's cheesy, but seeing these reminders of what I've created encourages me when tackling new problems.
Expand Your Knowledge: Working on these projects has exposed me to types of problems that I don't generally encounter in my regular job. Most of these problems are rooted in mathematics, and you're guaranteed to have that familiar relief when you finally start to understand exactly what is happening.
Make Some Sales: There are plenty of people that have found some measure of success selling prints of their projects. It's completely fine to just appreciate your work on your own, but you never know...
Have Fun: Definitely the most important part. If it isn't at least a little fun, why do it?
If you're interested in learning more about Generative Art and how to make your own, I've included links below to two basic tutorials that utilize Processing.
For examples of my projects (and the code for them), check out this repository.
I hope this has been somewhat helpful, thank you for reading!
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