Artists and Hackers: Ep. 1 Review

by Jordan Gibberman

(Image via https://www.artistsandhackers.org/Critical-Code)

The Purchase community got a new source of entertainment with the announcement of a new podcast by the film and media studies department.

The podcast, called “Artists and Hackers,” examines technology and internet history, as well as online artmaking. It’s dedicated to communities that are constructing and using new tools for digital creation. On Oct. 21, the first episode was recorded.

“Episode 1: Critical Code,” produced by Mimi Charles, focused on programming language and a few artists and hackers spoke about how they’re dissatisfied with its limitations and why they, and other programmers, create their own languages to make art.

“I feel that people who use these programs on a daily basis experience a lot of limitations,” said Ramsey Nasser, a guest on the podcast who’s a computer scientist, educator and game designer. “I think a lot of my instincts in language design comes from that.”

The podcast’s website design and coordination, made by Caleb Stone, is an interesting one. It consisted of tech equipment in the background with hands touching them, along with the computer cursor being substituted by a moving hand whenever move it or try to click on a tab. The audio sounded very clear, including the background music that comes in occasionally throughout the episode.

Artists and Hackers are looking forward to providing more content with more episodes. If you’re interested in checking them out, visit their website and listen to the first episode there or Apple and Spotify.

To listen to the whole podcast and to learn more about the project, visit https://www.artistsandhackers.org/Critical-Code