In 2017, Ted Davis released XYscope, a Processing library for vector displays, followed by P5LIVE in 2019, a live-coding p5.js environment.
These two passions, oscilloscopes and live coding, finally merge with XYscope.js, a port to JavaScript for p5.js, enabling live coding with oscilloscopes!
This workshop is for all skill levels, from beginner to expert. We’ll cover p5.js basics for generative art and motion, activate shapes for oscilloscope drawing, turn noise into music and create surprises by mixing signals through additive synthesis. Prior experience in Processing, p5.js or music theory is a bonus but not at all required.
PARTICIPATION
The workshop is free of charge and suitable for all skill levels. The workshop will be held in English. Bring your laptop and headphones. Applications via online form.
10:00-16:00 @ Katedrala
In creative coding, the basic drawing shapes (line, rect, ellipse, vertex, etc.) are displayed on modern screens as regions of pixels, softened with anti-aliasing. Such shapes have historically been rendered as vector graphics using various technologies, from pen plotters to oscilloscopes, each possessing a unique aesthetic. This workshop focuses on the analog oscilloscope, a lab device for displaying electronic signal waveforms via a moving electron beam in a cathode-ray tube. By switching it to “XY-Mode”, the 2-channel stereo audio signals move the beam, revealing our vector graphics in glowing glory! By experimenting with generative visuals and sound oscillations, we’ll explore the relationship between sight and sound.
Requirements:
- Laptop + charger
- Chromium browser (Chrome, Brave, Arc, Chromium)
- Headphones
References:
- XYscope (Processing): https://teddavis.org/xyscope
- XYscope.js (p5.js): https://teddavis.org/xyscopejs/
- P5LIVE (p5.js live-coding), https://p5live.org/
MENTOR
Ted Davis is a media artist / designer / educator from the United States now based in Switzerland, where he teaches interaction design within the Institute Digital Communication Environments IDCE, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW. His open-source projects (basil.js, XYscope, P5LIVE, p5.glitch) enable designers to code within Adobe InDesign, render vector graphics on vector displays, collaboratively live code p5.js and glitch real-time from the web browser. In 2021, he received the Basel Media Art Prize for p5.glitch and a Processing Foundation Teaching Fellowship. In 2024, he won the Swiss Design Awards in Media & Interaction Design for P5LIVE.
