RailsConf 2015
Coding: Art or Craft?
Coding: Art or Craft?
by Emily XieIn her talk 'Coding: Art or Craft?' at RailsConf 2015, Emily Xie explores the metaphors of code as both art and craft, challenging the audience to reflect on what programming means to them. She begins by defining the terms 'art' and 'craft,' explaining that while craft is associated with skill and utility, art is connected to creativity and emotion. Xie argues for the importance of these metaphors in framing our understanding of programming, which is a major part of our professional lives.
Key points discussed include:
- The Role of Metaphors: Metaphors simplify complex concepts, and Xie highlights that they significantly influence how we understand coding.
- Code as Craft: This metaphor emphasizes a rich tradition of craftsmanship, focusing on skill mastery and collaboration. Xie traces the evolution of this perspective within the software development community, referencing significant works that laid the foundations for the software craftsmanship movement.
- Code as Art: Emerging as a contrasting idea, this metaphor positions coding as a form of artistic expression. Xie emphasizes that programming, similar to art, involves creativity, intuition, and personal expression.
- Historical Context: Drawing parallels with the evolution of art during the Renaissance, she illustrates how coding could transition from a purely functional craft to a recognized art form.
- Aesthetic Experiences: Xie discusses the aesthetic qualities of code, likening the creation of code to artistic endeavors, where choices reflect the programmer’s personality.
- Duality of Coding: Ultimately, Xie concludes that coding encompasses elements of both art and craft, inviting the audience to appreciate the complexity and richness of their work.
Significant examples include the influence of historical figures like Michelangelo and the modern-day auctioning of computer code, which parallels traditional art auctions. Emily’s main takeaway is the importance of embracing both metaphors to foster a creative and innovative approach in software development, encouraging programmers to view themselves as artists.
00:00:12.080
All right, so how is everyone doing? Yay, cool!
00:00:17.680
Thank you for coming to my talk. I'm really excited to be here at RailsConf.
00:00:23.119
My name is Emily, and I am a software engineer at Wayfair, but I come from an art history background, which you've probably guessed from the topic.
00:00:30.000
Today, I'm going to explore how we think about the act of programming.
00:00:36.640
One of the ways we can do this is through metaphor.
00:00:41.920
Two powerful metaphors are 'code as art' and 'code as craft.'
00:00:47.039
Although we often equate the two as they both pertain to how we create things, they have completely different implications.
00:00:52.399
Code as craft is widely popular and has already taken strong root, while code as art is more of an emerging fringe metaphor.
00:00:58.239
Since you don't hear about code as art as often, as it's overshadowed by and sometimes confused with the craft movement, I wanted to build a case for it.
00:01:04.879
I want to show you why it’s different and why it deserves to be considered a separate concept.
00:01:11.119
Hopefully, this discussion can help you answer the question of whether code is art or craft.
00:01:18.479
But most of all, I want to spark discussion and encourage everyone here to think about what coding and creating means to them.
00:01:23.920
Even if they don't see it as strictly one or the other or something else entirely.
00:01:29.119
Let's start with metaphors. As we all know, metaphors are direct comparisons of one thing to another.
00:01:36.400
The language of computing is abundant with metaphors.
00:01:42.799
For example, garbage collection refers to automatic memory management, and we have folders, directories, and pages.
00:01:49.040
None of which are literally those things. In object-oriented programming, we have parents, children, ancestors, and descendants.
00:01:55.439
When connecting to an outside program, you perform a handshake to agree on a connection protocol.
00:02:01.840
Surely all of you can think of many more metaphors.
00:02:09.200
The point I want to make is that metaphors help us to understand something complex by relating them to something familiar.
00:02:15.840
Though packaged into so few words, metaphors can convey an entire story and express multiple meanings.
00:02:21.040
Metaphors matter because they shape the way we think about things—both for ourselves and how others might perceive them.
00:02:28.159
That's why I wanted to discuss the larger metaphor for describing coding.
00:02:33.760
This is crucial because we spend around 40 hours a week doing it—essentially, the most significant part of our waking hours.
00:02:40.879
We should think about what coding means to us and those around us.
00:02:47.040
The metaphor we use to describe coding provides guidance and a framework to understand it.
00:02:53.200
It helps us comprehend the answers to the hows and whys of our work.
00:02:58.959
The first metaphor I want to discuss is 'code as craft.' Let's consider what this metaphor entails.
00:03:05.680
Craft consists of a body of knowledge and skills used to produce useful objects.
00:03:11.440
There is a rich history of craft that predates us by hundreds of years.
00:03:17.120
This long history and its traditions deeply inform what the term craft means today.
00:03:22.159
If we were to hop into a time machine and go back to the medieval ages, we'd find craft skills associated with makers.
00:03:28.159
Every craftsman belonged to a guild, which was an essential part of civic life.
00:03:34.160
These guilds supported the central modes of production for everyday needs—silversmiths, stonemasons, lace makers, cobblers, bakers.
00:03:40.000
Each specialization was devoted to handmade goods, and craftsmen trained their entire lives to become masters.
00:03:47.280
They followed a defined accomplishment system.
00:03:52.880
An apprentice would start out unpaid, usually at a very young age.
00:03:59.680
The apprentice would live with his master to train, learning the basic technical aspects.
00:04:06.959
His life revolved completely around his work—he lived and breathed his craft.
00:04:13.760
The apprentice would eventually become a journeyman once he was good enough to produce goods and get paid.
00:04:20.720
From there, he could work for the rank of master.
00:04:27.360
As a master, he could set up his shop and take on apprentices to pass on traditions.
00:04:33.759
Guilds served as forums for nurturing competence and emphasized community.
00:04:40.000
In addition to mentoring, guilds encouraged close collaboration.
00:04:45.520
Craftsmen cared about their customers, aiming to produce high-quality end products.
00:04:52.880
They inspected the workmanship and regulated prices to ensure fairness, developing relationships with customers.
00:04:59.360
The code as craft movement has gained considerable momentum in recent years.
00:05:06.000
You can see how it draws from the distinct history and traditions of craftsmanship.
00:05:12.400
It can be traced back to 1999 with Andrew Hunt's book 'The Pragmatic Programmer,' which nods towards craft.
00:05:18.480
In 2002, Pete McBreen coined the term 'software craftsmanship' with his book of the same title.
00:05:25.279
He advocated that to produce quality software, we should view our work as a craft and adopt a guild-like model.
00:05:31.680
In the late 90s and early 2000s, the code as craft movement began to coalesce.
00:05:37.919
Books and gatherings emerged, leading to online discussions.
00:05:43.760
By December 2008, attendees of the Software Craftsmanship Summit in Chicago discussed what it meant to be a developer craftsman.
00:05:50.640
They drafted the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, which laid down principles of craftsmanship.
00:05:56.560
This manifesto emphasized the value of well-crafted software and relationships within the developer community.
00:06:03.919
It attracted several thousand signatures in the first few months and has since been translated into at least seven languages.
00:06:10.880
The manifesto effectively crystallized the principles of software craftsmanship, stamping them into existence.
00:06:17.040
Today, the movement’s effects are far-reaching, influencing programming culture.
00:06:24.480
For example, this conference has a track specifically devoted to this topic.
00:06:31.520
Many companies are adopting the apprenticeship model, which I personally experienced at Wayfair.
00:06:39.440
Etsy’s engineering department brands their work as craft and frequently blogs about it.
00:06:46.720
The Software Craftsmanship Conference in Budapest dedicates three days to this topic.
00:06:54.560
Many see code as craft today, and our vocabulary is laced with references to this notion.
00:07:01.600
We view coding like craft because we believe in continual learning, skill mastery, mentorship, and collaboration.
00:07:08.399
We focus on building useful things.
00:07:15.120
This movement has helped shift our perspective, thinking of coders as makers.
00:07:20.720
This contrasts with the older perception of programmers as mere executors, like black boxes.
00:07:27.680
The code as craft movement naturally paves the way for discussions on creativity, especially within the Ruby community.
00:07:34.560
Terms like ‘pretty’ and ‘creative’ have started emerging.
00:07:41.440
For instance, in a 2007 anthology called 'Beautiful Code,' Matz describes what makes code aesthetic.
00:07:48.240
In his 2014 book 'Geek Sublime,' Chandra directly questions whether code itself can be beautiful.
00:07:55.760
Terms like taste, pleasure, human perception, aesthetics, and beauty are being introduced.
00:08:02.960
However, none of this fits neatly into the traditions of craft, particularly as defined by our software craftsmanship movement.
00:08:10.880
Medieval makers were concerned primarily with skill and collaboration, creating useful products.
00:08:17.120
So, what I see happening is that we are progressively likening code to art.
00:08:24.080
Now, I'll discuss what the metaphor of art encompasses.
00:08:29.520
Art is a complicated concept.
00:08:37.920
We all recognize art when we see it.
00:08:44.160
Generally, we think of visual arts like sculpture, painting, and installation, but art is a broader concept.
00:08:51.120
At its core, art is anything that moves us—it expresses human creativity and emotion.
00:08:57.440
Art is about ideas and human imagination—it makes us think.
00:09:04.640
Interestingly, our modern understanding of art arose from what was once craft.
00:09:10.880
During the height of medieval guilds in the 14th century, a movement known as Renaissance Humanism changed perceptions.
00:09:18.240
This movement, drawing from Roman and Greek classics, emphasized human dignity and creativity.
00:09:25.120
Craftsmen began questioning the nature of their professions.
00:09:31.680
Some, like Leon Battista Alberti, wrote treatises framing their work not as applied skill but as liberal art.
00:09:38.160
Gregorio Vasari's influential book 'The Lives of the Artists' illustrated artists as creative virtuosos.
00:09:44.560
Michelangelo famously stated, 'A man paints with his brains, not with his hands.'
00:09:51.920
Within a short time, the general perception of what constitutes art began to shift.
00:09:59.120
Drawing, painting, and sculpture transitioned from being seen as crafts to being celebrated as art.
00:10:05.840
These creative endeavors were recognized for their intrinsic meaning and value.
00:10:13.120
Historically, this transformation has repeated itself, and we are now experiencing a renaissance of our own.
00:10:21.280
Much like the humanists of the 14th century, we are reevaluating our profession and how we present ourselves.
00:10:28.480
Literature on code as art has begun to emerge, appearing in several books and online posts.
00:10:34.640
However, the arguments for this perspective are not yet widely known or adopted in mainstream discourse.
00:10:41.520
Let’s examine how code is much more like art than we might think.
00:10:48.480
This can be observed both in the process of creation and in the final product.
00:10:54.080
To create something, you must first choose a medium.
00:11:01.680
In art, a medium can include materials like pastel, watercolor, clay, or canvas.
00:11:07.120
In programming, our medium can include the text editor or the language we select to use.
00:11:16.160
My language of choice is Ruby, which I find particularly expressive.
00:11:23.120
I liken it to acrylic paint—it's elegant, rich, and clear.
00:11:30.480
Every stroke of acrylic has defined borders, similar to how a Ruby method delineates boundaries.
00:11:37.440
Ruby is also beginner-friendly, but it has many advanced techniques to explore.
00:11:43.680
Just as some artists prefer specific mediums, programmers have their preferences.
00:11:50.400
Personally, I write a lot in PHP, which I don’t love.
00:11:56.480
It reminds me of pen ink—it's simple but requires many strokes, leading to a convoluted appearance.
00:12:03.120
Yet, it achieves its intended purpose.
00:12:09.920
As the saying goes, different strokes for different folks.
00:12:16.720
Paul Graham sums this up well in his essay 'Hackers and Painters,' stating that hackers need to understand theory.
00:12:24.000
In the same way that painters need to understand paint chemistry, programmers must grasp the fundamentals of their medium.
00:12:31.480
We must experiment and undergo trial and error to fully understand our tools.
00:12:38.480
Once the medium is selected, the creation process can commence.
00:12:46.720
How many of you have made art? Can I see a show of hands?
00:12:53.920
For those who have made art, you might agree that it closely resembles writing code.
00:13:01.440
Many famous artists would likely echo this sentiment.
00:13:08.080
For example, Francis Bacon stated that the creative process is a blend of instinct, skill, culture, and feverishness.
00:13:15.680
This state can be described as a mixture of consciousness and unconsciousness, fear and pleasure.
00:13:22.400
Bacon's description aligns closely with the trance-like state of flow experienced during coding.
00:13:29.199
When you code, there are moments when you input keystrokes rapidly without much reflection.
00:13:36.320
Simultaneously, a conscious element demands your attention as you channel thoughts onto the screen.
00:13:42.080
You develop skills and habits along the way; for instance, I routinely type 'git status' after every operation.
00:13:50.080
The way you approach programming problems involves skill, intuition, and risk-taking.
00:13:56.480
Coding is engrossing, making you feel present. I sometimes begin work at 9 AM only to realize the entire day has flown by.
00:14:02.720
You become so engrossed in thought that you tune the world out.
00:14:09.680
It’s a very personal experience.
00:14:15.200
Michelangelo famously painted the Sistine Chapel in this trance-like state, often forgetting to eat or sleep.
00:14:21.840
Just as artists make aesthetic choices, programmers make decisions regarding algorithm design.
00:14:28.080
In Ruby, there are many ways to print numbers one through one hundred depending on one's style.
00:14:35.040
A minimalist may opt for a simple and elegant option, while a maximalist might humorously write all numbers out.
00:14:42.560
Someone from a C background may find comfort in traditional for loops.
00:14:50.240
A student excited by object-oriented programming might want to wrap it in a class.
00:14:57.760
Ultimately, in art, the artistic process reflects the creator’s personality, preferences, and influences.
00:15:04.640
Similarly, in coding, everything we do—from problem-solving to indentation style—is influenced by our background.
00:15:10.880
We imbue our code with personal taste, constantly making aesthetic choices.
00:15:18.080
Upon completion, what we have crafted can be appreciated similarly to a work of art.
00:15:24.079
For example, here's a painting of a factory by Van Gogh next to a factory class code.
00:15:30.640
Bear with me; I see many similarities.
00:15:37.600
Van Gogh's strokes abstract details into lines and colors, much like how Ruby code abstracts complexity.
00:15:44.159
Both art and programming use abstraction to present larger concepts.
00:15:52.240
The cleanliness and structure of code can resemble artistic works.
00:15:58.080
For instance, scrolling through code, one might notice its orderly indentation, just like an Alexander Calder sculpture.
00:16:05.040
The systematic nature of these forms can be aesthetically pleasing.
00:16:11.680
There's even a programming language called Piet, where the code itself is a visual representation, akin to Mondrian's paintings.
00:16:17.760
The coding in Piet resembles art, merging code with aesthetic forms.
00:16:23.840
This further illustrates how we can treat code as an art object.
00:16:29.680
Just like viewing a painting, appreciating a software project involves acknowledging its aesthetic qualities.
00:16:35.680
Recently, the founders of Rues Laboratories held the first ever auction of computer code at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian.
00:16:42.240
Patrons purchased algorithms for similar reasons as one might buy pieces of art.
00:16:50.079
Some pieces were recognized for their cultural significance or nostalgic meaning.
00:16:57.360
For example, a printout of the code from a compatibility calculation algorithm reflects our modern technology use.
00:17:05.120
A handwritten function printing 'Hello, World!' by Brian Kernighan holds sentimental value as one of the first lines of code.
00:17:11.840
Even during code reviews, we apply personal taste to what we see.
00:17:18.480
I find procedural spaghetti code as messy as Jackson Pollock's, which is chaotic and hard to decipher.
00:17:25.440
However, I appreciate meta programming and recursion for their elegance.
00:17:32.720
The beauty lies in the ability to express complex ideas in just a few lines of code.
00:17:38.720
Arthur Danto famously defined art as something that compels interpretation.
00:17:45.760
Artworks invite questions about their meaning and subject.
00:17:52.080
Similarly, code requires us to identify its purpose, whether it's about a database or a recommendation engine.
00:17:59.040
Understanding code entails considering details and the author's intent.
00:18:05.920
Much like art, coding ultimately revolves around conveying concepts and ideas.
00:18:12.000
I hope I convinced you of the parallels between coding and art.
00:18:20.720
We choose a medium and undergo a unique creative journey to bring a concept to life, resulting in aesthetic experiences.
00:18:27.760
This connection invites us to value the historic, cultural, and personal meanings behind our work.
00:18:34.080
Now, let’s revisit the importance of metaphor in shaping our understanding.
00:18:40.560
We explored craft as a metaphor, prioritizing continual learning to produce useful end products.
00:18:48.480
This concept expanded our view of creativity in coding, resulting in the notion of code as art.
00:18:56.080
It allows for self-expression and the appreciation of code beyond utility.
00:19:03.280
Finally, we need to address the question of whether code is art or craft.
00:19:10.440
The answer is both—each carries its distinct history and implications.
00:19:17.920
Coding is an applied skill, like craft, but it also demands creativity and innovative thinking, like art.
00:19:25.120
Sometimes we choose the tools necessary for the task, but other times, we select our preferred medium.
00:19:32.960
Coding is collaborative yet intensely personal; it has practical function as well as aesthetic value.
00:19:39.920
The artistic and craft elements intertwine, reflecting the multifaceted nature of coding.
00:19:48.080
In the art community, we often discuss whether a piece is art or craft, and it is not mutually exclusive.
00:19:56.080
Items can embody elements of both, and we should embrace this diversity.
00:20:03.280
As I prepared for this talk, I read many arguments asserting programming cannot fit into one metaphor.
00:20:11.360
However, it's not necessary to wholly adopt one metaphor over another.
00:20:18.400
During the Renaissance revival, the idea of craft didn't disappear; it coexisted with the evolving notion of art.
00:20:26.000
Both perspectives have led to remarkable innovations.
00:20:32.880
I firmly believe we should afford greater value to the code as art metaphor, which is still emerging.
00:20:39.440
This perspective invites us to consider our roles creatively.
00:20:46.560
By viewing ourselves as artists, we might feel empowered to take risks and innovate.
00:20:54.080
It may also encourage more people with creative interests to enter the field.
00:21:02.080
Imagine if we began attaching creator names to their work, much like artists receive recognition.
00:21:09.360
While we already have notable figures in tech, we can move toward greater recognition.
00:21:15.679
Moreover, we might start emphasizing the ideals of art for art's sake, focusing on the code itself.
00:21:22.639
This could lead to more maintainable code and clearer expression of ideas.
00:21:30.000
The adoption of the code as craft metaphor became significant in recent years.
00:21:38.320
Let’s consider the possibilities of introducing a new metaphor: code as art.
00:21:45.840
Metaphors hold incredible potential to push social and cultural boundaries.
00:21:53.200
We should embrace diversity in perspectives as we frame our work.
00:22:00.560
Identifying as software engineers is common, but I envision a future.
00:22:06.960
A day when people introduce themselves as software sculptors.
00:22:14.080
Thank you for your attention! Here's my Twitter handle, feel free to tweet at me.
00:22:20.160
I welcome your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree.
00:22:27.040
We have run out of time, so if you have any questions or comments, let’s discuss!
