This website is under construction — but I’ve begun writing about the motivation behind it

OpenSource.art is a project by Jos Vromans (see my personal website here). I want to share most of my work here, in an open and free way, accessible for everyone and (somewhat) organized with searchable categories and tags.

OpenSource.art is a place where I can publish every algorithm I ever write. Sometimes with a motivation and description, and sometimes a sketch without any context. But in any case, the artwork image and the actual code will be published. A live view, where the code can be run in the webbrowser will also be present whenever possible.

This is an important way for me to share my work. I made over a 1000 algorithms from scratch, but most of them have never been shared with the world. They just sit on my computer (and in my GIT repository). I could just make that personal codebase open, but I think that will not be worth it. Firstly, because the codebase is messy, so it is not digestible for any visitor who ends up there. Instead, I like to select algorithms one by one, and present them with an image and a little description. Also, the artworks and algorithms should be searchable on keywords, tags and title's. To achieve this, a custom website is more suitable then just sharing a codebase.

Over the years, I have made artworks in Python and in the web browser using JavaScript. I've made hand coded art in Blender (using Python), wrote algorithms suitable for pen plotters, for inkjet printers and 3d printers. Recently I am doing some work using shaders, using WebGL and OSL. All these different things are also a motivation why I need a place to be able to share things in a way where I can take control over the filtering and presentation. So in the future this website will have url's with a section for /plotters and for /blender, etc.

Another reason for this website is that it will be possible to purchase Artworks. In some cases, the visitor can select a variation from an algorithm and then purchase a print or plot. Currently, a lot of my artworks are sitting in that private repository with the idea to 'one day re visit them and make some modifications before publishing them somewhere'. The reality is that this rarely happens. Even when I make modifications, I am not always sure how and where to release them. I hope that this website will allow me to release work more quickly. When presented in the right way, an algorithm can shine even without being 'polished'. The visitor can play with the algorithm by changing parameters to their own liking and might find a variation they like to hang on their wall.

Since I decide to share my work this way, I can extend this by also sharing helper methods and sketches. So not everything shared here is an Artwork with a capital 'A'. I will distinguish between them with the following labels:

This way, I can build my own database of code implementations of all sorts that I have made over the years. Whenever I release an artwork, I can refer to helper methods or specific algorithm implementations that are used to make the artwork.

So the 'Artworks' and 'Sketches' are completely original works of mine, while the tools and algorithms might be common implementations that can be find elsewhere in literature and on the internet. Some of those tools and algorithms will still be a very specific and unique variation I made. This will be described and motivated.

For the 'Image Tools' it can be very nice to quickly try something on any image you have. As an artist who creates images with code, you can then decide if you want to apply such operation in the code by copying the code. As with everything presented on this website, the code will be included.

Please note that this is by no means an attempt to build a general database of creative coding techniques that accepts user contributions. This is really an insight in my personal practice, and contains a selection of things I wrote and use. It shows what I make with code, and how I use it in my artworks. This is useful for myself to organize some of my code, and it is a gift and hopefully a source of inspiration to any visitor of this website who finds it useful.