What do the French artist Henri Matisse, cinema pioneer Georges Meliès and scratch coding share in common? Lower school pupils attending this week’s Computing & Art Expo event learned that cut-out animation produced through scratch coding has artistic and visual roots in the development of cut out art pioneered by these two famous French figures. Year 7 Coding club members Jude, Walt and Milla showed examples and explained how they produced specific aspects of animations shown, including undulating waves beneath a moving ship and orbiting planets, which reference Meliès’ Voyage à la lune or Journey to the Moon.
Teacher of Computing, Mr McKenzie, explained that although deceptively simple, the Python coding embedded in scratch coding can produce randomised movement of images set to a timer for a specific duration or within a time frame, of the sort used often in game design to increase unpredictability and enjoyment.
Ms Ni Cheallaigh, SMT Associate & Teacher of MFL