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