adyer07

Hi HN! I’m a software engineer and an artist. I’m back in school, and for a final assignment this semester made three massive drawings on the topic of software development. I hope you enjoy them! I’m interested to hear how a technical audience responds to them, and if they express anything to you.

I’m returning to school for a BFA in art, and I’m constantly surprised by exactly how un-hackable the assignments are, compared to my experience studying engineering. It’s finals season, and many people (myself included) take it as an excuse to push and make work that is harder and more complex than they could during the rest of the semester. Most classes are pass/fail, so the only reward is having better work (and a better portfolio). You could duct tape a banana to the wall, but that’s on you to live with.

Maybe there aren’t a lot of fine artists starting YC companies, but how about designers who went to art school? Do they treat these problems differently? Do they have less to unlearn, or different bad habits?

The idea of creating file structures to mimic more poetic ideas is both really clever and also quite endearing. It’s a tiny bit subversive in the best way.

How has the response been from non-technical folks?

The ghostly quality of the particle drawing is really nice. I love how it gets the overlaid effect across but in a nicer way than simple transparency.

How are the particles attracted to the areas of the image that need to be darker?

I like the idea of a platform dedicated solely to surfacing new things from small makers - hopefully avoiding a winner-take-all kind of market.

My immediate two thoughts as an as an artist were “neat! I should submit something” followed by “hmm, what is this going to cost me? Cash, or IP?” You might consider addressing costs in your about page and the pop-up blurb; I’m wary to even give out my google account without knowing that first.

I love that he chose to turn it into a baby blanket - it resonates so much more than if it was just a print or digital image.

As someone without kids, I also feel like I learned something about baby sleep by looking at it. Neat to see it turn from randomness into something ordered.

Ha, that’s how I started! If you’re interested in dipping a toe in, I recommend doing a weekend trip - bike out, camp, and back. It’s a wonderful feeling to escape wherever you are under your own power.

Don’t forget bicycles! Long distance bike touring is a really fascinating way to experience a place, if you have the time to do it. My rule of thumb is that one hour of driving takes about a day of bicycle touring - so you can get remarkably far in a week or two.

I make paintings about programming/code. Right now I'm developing a screen print, and I wanted to build on the same abstract style I used with one-off watercolor paintings.

I decided to make my first print about rubber duck debugging. I had a lot of fun rendering a crazy hatch-mark pixelated rubber duck, but I keep going back and forth on the final layout and composition. I spent an alarming amount of time this week doodling thumbnails of ducks with different abstract backgrounds.

You can see some of my stuff here :) http://amydyer.art/wp/index.php/portfolio/technology/