Old-School Code Visualization
There is some hint as to why I like old video games in this page:
http://benfry.com/distellamap/
Maybe I just don’t want to contend with the sort of complexity of modern programs, or maybe I see in them the seeds of a useful approach that can be extrapolated in these more easily understood situations, but I love these diagrams. Because the images are hard coded as bits, visualizing the bit structures recreates the freaking graphics in the diagram! Because the translation method that the code used to turn data into images was so simple, the visualization was able to achieve a satisfying result via a transformation that didn’t feel like a cheat. That simple translation from bits to visualizability is simply lost in any programs more complicated.
This is maybe further proof that the complexity of software really doesn’t appeal to me past a certain threshold, a threshold that has been long since passed by modern computing. Whether I can make software appeal to me through some clever conceit, or whether I’m in the wrong field remains to be seen.
PS:
http://benfry.com/disarticulate/
This picture awes me in its own way. It is less understandable, but it is so striking, and appears to be on much more complex code. The way that the appearance of frenzied, ragged brushstrokes is created by the rote mathematical operation of a program is hugely appealing. A friend pointed out that some aesthetic choices must have been made in terms of code layout, something which only increased my enjoyment of the image.
