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Is Programming Art?

Posted by Zonk on from the painting-a-good-program dept.

chromatic writes "A constant question for software developers is 'What is the nature of programming?' Is it art or science? Does creativity or engineering lead the design and implementation of a program? John Littler talked to several well-known and well-respected programmers (including Guido van Rossum, Andy Hunt, Bjarne Stroustrup, Paul Graham, and Richard Stallman) to find their answers; he shares their thoughts and his own in Art and Computer Programming." From the article: "What the heck is art anyway, at least as most people understand it? What do people mean when they say 'art'? A straw poll showed a fair degree of consensus--art is craft plus a special degree of inspiration. This pretty much explains immediately why only art students and art critics at a certain sort of paper favor conceptual art. Conceptual art, of course, often lacks a craft component as people usually understand the term."

12 of 462 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Donniedarkness · · Score: 5, Funny

    Programmers do meet one of the requirements that you have to meet to be considered an artist: They make no money.

    --
    Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
  2. Re:What is art? by postgrep · · Score: 3, Funny

    My perl code looks way sexier than Britanny Spears, how come IT didn't win one of the 50th sexiest people?

  3. Re:Not a fine art by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, most software on the market seems to have been written by the "Dogs Playing Poker" programmers.

  4. Re:Not a fine art by squidfood · · Score: 5, Funny
    Unfortunately, most software on the market seems to have been written by the "Dogs Playing Poker" programmers.

    And there's a market for that. Hence, Visual Basic.

  5. Re:Not a fine art by pyg · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow! I didn't know so may folks were 'Jackson Pollack' type artists... I just thought they were shitty coders.

  6. Re:Not a fine art by LaminatorX · · Score: 4, Funny

    Michelangelo must be the lead programmer for the HURD.

  7. Re:Emotion? by Joff_NZ · · Score: 3, Funny

    For me, art must express some level of emotion.

    It does. More often that not, code inspires in me pure, unadulterated rage

    --
    The revolution will not be televised. It won't be on a friggin blog either
  8. That's funny by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny

    I didn't know Jackson Pollack was an "artist" .... I just thought he was a shitty painter.

  9. Re:Not a fine art by patio11 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and crashes when any dog gets a straight flush in clubs, or is an instance of chihuahua.

    --
    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  10. Re:It's engineering by hpxchan · · Score: 2, Funny
    To put it another way, I've seen guys who know the process side of software engineering inside and out - but couldn't code their way out of a paper bag
    Well, if I was stuck in a paper bag, I know I certainly wouldn't be able to "code" myself out of it.
  11. Re:Not a fine art by Mingco · · Score: 3, Funny
    Paraphrasing the czech theorist Jan Mukarovsky[1]: art is when the aesthetic function is greater than all other functions.
    Paris Hilton serves no function. Although Paris Hilton's aesthetic function is low, all other functions are even lower. By Jan Mukarovkey's definition, Paris Hilton is art.
  12. Re:Drivel by AvantLegion · · Score: 3, Funny
    >> how do you explain Perl poetry

    Geeks without dates.