During the lockdown, I needed to do something that kept my mind busy, and I decided to try a new hobby. In April, I've started a podcast on creative coding.
Why creative coding?
I am a big fan of creative coding languages and frameworks, and I think that they can be a good starting point for new developers. They can also help more seasoned developers learn new things about art and design, and hopefully get them even more excited about the possibilites programming has to offer.
Why a podcast?
I wanted to learn something new, something that could get me out of the comfort zone, something that was a productive distraction. I also wanted to share the things I find interesting and see if I can get more people to learn creative coding. The podcast, called "Tab & Space", is in Romanian. I wanted to reach more people in my home country. It's a niche field and I would love to see it develop more over here.
Looking back, I think a podcast was an ideal learning opportunity for me. Skills that I haven't used in a long time - long format writing - were polished, and new skills - audio recording & editing - were learned.
In this process, I've learned to appreciate more the hard work that goes into producing something. In total, I think I spent around 48-72 hours/episode. I think it's time well spent. My episodes are around 10 minutes long, but the whole process included research, drafting the episode, writing and recording it, then editing it and publishing it on Anchor and (recently) on Youtube.
How I did it?
I recorded the trailer with my headphones' microphone. It sounded weird, but I didn't re-record it afterwards. The people I've shared it with said that it didn't sound like my normal voice, so I decided to find a better microphone.
I got myself a USB mic for podcasting, and last month I got a microphone arm and a pop filter. The microphone did come with a desktop stand, but due to the fact that it wasn't the most stable thing, it was picking up even the slightest keyboard tap.
Thanks to free tools like Audacity, I managed to edit my sound a bit and remove the background noise that might still end up in my recording. +1 to sound editing!
I've chosen Anchor.fm as my hosting platform because I didn't want to invest that much money from the start into something that I didn't really know how to do. Anchor.fm also comes along with some useful things, like splitting your episode, adding background music and sound effects between sections. Another thing that I liked about it was the fact that your podcast is distributed on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pocketcasts etc. without you having to spend too much time configuring stuff.
What I talk(ed) about?
I've released three episodes until now, not counting the trailer. I've talked about the history of generative art, about Processing and p5.js, terms like software art and computer art. I also talked about computer art in the 60s and one of the largest computer art exhibitions: Cybernetic Serendipity. I was amazed by the works presented there and I would like to share with you this video, where Jasia Reichardt, the curator of Cybernetic Serendipity, talks about some of the things one could've seen there:
As a closing note, in case you understand Romanian, you can find my podcast over here: https://anchor.fm/tab-and-space
What do you think: should I try and record an English version for this podcast?
Thanks for reading!
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