Programming for Visual Artists

Programming for Visual Artists is a Jekyll-powered course website that serves as the online hub for a foundation New Media course at Purchase College, built with the minimal-uni theme and updated weekly throughout the fall 2023 semester.

What is Programming for Visual Artists?

Programming for Visual Artists is a course website created for a foundation course in New Media taught by Lee Tusman at Purchase College. It runs on Jekyll, a static site generator, and uses the minimal-uni theme, which the instructor also developed. The site takes course content as input and produces a static, publicly accessible website at leetusman.com/p4va_fall2023. The repository is hosted on GitHub and documents the course structure, including weekly pages for the fall 2023 edition.

Key Features

• Jekyll static site — The site is generated with Jekyll, producing plain HTML files that need no server-side processing or database.
• minimal-uni theme — The website is styled with the minimal-uni Jekyll theme, a custom theme created by the same author to keep layout minimal and code-oriented.
• Weekly page accumulation — Pages are added each week until the last week of the semester, so the site grows chronologically with the course.
• p5.js and creative coding focus — Repository topics list creative coding, curriculum, jekyll-theme, p5js, and programming, indicating a curriculum built around p5.js.
• Openly accessible — The live course site is freely viewable online, and the Jekyll source is available for others to inspect or adapt.

Who is it for?

• Instructors of creative coding or new media courses — They can use this Jekyll site as a model for organizing weekly lessons and course materials in a static, easy-to-host format.
• Students enrolled in the course — They rely on the weekly added pages to follow the syllabus, access programming examples, and stay on track through the semester.
• Creative coders and educators — They can browse the public site to see how a visual-arts programming course is structured and how the minimal-uni theme handles course content.

What can you do with this course website?

• Instructors: Reuse the Jekyll and minimal-uni setup to generate a course site that automatically accumulates weekly pages over a term.
• Students: Navigate weekly pages to find lessons, programming examples, and assignments connected to the p5.js curriculum.
• Developers: Study the minimal-uni theme and the course site's Jekyll configuration as a reference for building other stripped-down educational or documentation websites.

FAQ

Is the source code available?

Yes, the course website is built from a Jekyll project hosted on GitHub. The minimal-uni theme used to generate the site is also open source at github.com/lee2sman/minimal-uni.

What topics does the course cover?

The repository's topics include creative coding, curriculum, jekyll-theme, p5js, and programming. The course is an introduction to programming for visual artists, with a focus on p5.js.

How often is the site updated?

Pages are generally added each week until the last week of the semester, so the site grows progressively throughout the course.