Algorithms sit at the core of generative art: the mathematical way you transform a line, a polygon, a circle, or an individual pixel. But even simple algorithms have their intent obfuscated as the are manifested in code: dealing with loops, states, missing cases, undefined behaviour.

Functional programming offers an alternative way to describe algorithms that focusses on not instructions for the computer, but on data transforms instead, matching the transforms on data in many algorithmic art pipelines: the points of a model, transformed to a new location in an animation, transformed from 3D to 2D for the screen, transformed to coloured pixels for display.

In this workshop we'll show how functional programming has a natural alignment to algorithmic art. We'll use an online playground we developed to help teach functional programming to students via computer graphics, and use it to show how computer art can be expressed functionally.

The aim is to teach you a potentially new way of thinking about algorithmic art, perhaps unlocking new ideas to explore in the future.

Wifi-enabled laptop required.